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"It has been shocking in a good way to see the national response that we have had every time we talk about Flint on the air," says Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, who hosts a televised discussion there Wednesday night about the water debacle.
Rachel Maddow at a Flint public school Wednesday: "People’s hearts leapt at this story." (Periscope photo via MSNBC)
"The outpouring of outrage and concern and the number of people saying 'how can I help' was overwhelming to us," she adds in a Detroit Free Press interview with columnist Rochelle Riley.
"People’s hearts leaped at this story. The country cares about Flint, and I didn’t expect that to come at me in such a huge way. . . .
"What happened was an act of commission. This was a policy decision, not somebody asleep at the switch. This was a bad decision made overtly with clear lines of accountability. It’s very rarely this black and white that you can just say who done it and who’s responsible."
The network commentator arrived Wednesday afternoon at Brownell/Holmes STEM Academy, where she'll be joined in the gym with by Flint's mayor, a U.S. senator, two professionals who confirmed lead contamination of city water and four Michigan journalists who spread the word.
The "town hall" discussion airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
About 500 residents chosen by NBC and Flint Community Schools will fill metal folding chairs and bleachers as Maddow moderates a taped discussion among these panel members that airs at 9 p.m.:
- Mayor Karen Weaver
- U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow
- Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician at Hurley Medical Center
- Flint Water Study leader Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech environmental engineering professor
- Investigative reporter Curt Guyette of the ACLU of Michigan
- Flint Journal editor Bryn Mickle and reporter Ron Fonger
- Detroit Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer
Stabenow tweets that she sees it as "a much-needed conversation about how to help Flint families and children."
The setting is one of three public schools that tested for lead levels above federal guidelines last fall. "I'm going to be the person with the microphone and I'm really nervous about it," Maddow jokes to a group of students at the gym in late afternoon, as shown in a brief video tweeted by the network.
Here's three and a half minutes of background posted last week by Andrew Maclean and Ben Hancock of The Flint Journal if you need to catch up:
