NAMING NAMES: Exposing How—and Why—Mainstream Media Is IN ON Major Cover Ups

***One of the most important stories you'll read*** You have NO IDEA what's happening BEHIND-THE-SCENES to hide life-or-death information from you

Nearly a decade into reporting across America, mostly on the stories and communities the corporate media chooses to ignore, I’ve come to an alarming observation.

Beyond the the typical pejoratives thrown their way—lazy, elitist, out-of touch—mainstream national and local news outlets are consciously choosing to cover up life-threatening news from the public…seemingly at the behest of politicians, corporate advertisers, and powerful non-profits. More simply put: the fourth estate is becoming as equally corrupt as the powerful politicians and corporations they’re supposed to be holding accountable.

This is not easy, or necessarily smart, for me to write. After all, I have a book coming out in August on the Flint water cover up— that I believe will expose the biggest government cover up of the 21st century— that I hope national and local outlets will review and cover. So…writing that the journalistic emperors have no clothes probably doesn’t help the cause. But the truth is the truth; I believe you deserve to know the deeper behind-the-scenes machinations causing critical news to be hidden from you.

For specifics, lets look at just the last seven days and three major public health and corruption stories I broke.

• June 10: In Detroit Metro Times, I released audio where then Flint Mayoral candidate Sheldon Neeley (now Mayor) accused the powerful Mott Foundation of pulling strings behind-the-scenes that caused the Flint water crisis. On the tape, Neely also implied the foundation is racist. Both Neeley and Mott Foundation issued responses to my story.

• June 11: In our Substack, broke that the EPA—which for over a year insisted it was not detecting toxic vinyl chloride in East Palestine—recently detected it and hid it from the public. The story included text messages between an EPA official and local PA resident where the EPA official admitted the agency detected VC.

• June 18: In our Substack, broke that the FBI was investigating public corruption linked to Michigan Governor Whitmer’s approval of tax breaks and $125 million in bonds for Graphic Packaging International—a paper mill releasing toxic levels of gas into poor Black community in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Objectively speaking, every one of these stories was significant and warranted broader pickup and coverage from mainstream national and local outlets. Let’s start with the Flint story.

1) It is inarguably a major news story when the mayor of Flint is on tape accusing the powerful Mott Foundation—which funds most of Flint’s public life— of racism and dictating who then-Governor Rick Snyder appointed as unelected emergency managers in Flint (whose decisions helped cause the crisis). I sent the story to every Michigan and Flint outlet I could think of.

Sean Mahon, the news director for ABC 12 in Flint, kindly responded “thanks for sharing this”—and then kindly buried it (more to come on ABC12 and their complicity in the Flint water cover-up in my upcoming book). Guess how many other of these outlets covered my story?

And guess what I found out? The Mott Foundation is a major funder for many of Flint’s non-profit groups; non-profits who are some of the most reliable/largest advertisers on local TV news (CBS, NBC, ABC) and other local media outlets. You do the math to figure out why none of them have covered this obviously newsworthy story.

And this isn’t just a Flint thing. To discuss this major story, I interviewed Steve Neavling, an award-winning investigative reporter with the independent Detroit Metro Times (and former reporter for the Detroit Free Press). While discussing the shameful fact that no Michigan outlet would cover the Neeley/Mott story, Neavling revealed that when he was a reporter at the Detroit Free Press, the top editor, Paul Anger, openly told reporters that the paper would not critically cover the state takeover/appointment of unelected emergency managers to take power in Detroit—because it might economically hurt the paper. “We’re not going to call this anything but oversight,” Neavling recounted then editor-in-chief Anger sharing. “He said if Detroit dies, so do we…if Detroit’s economy collapses, if the city government collapses, if the city is no longer able to pay for services, we at the newspaper will no longer be able to survive.”

On the financial considerations that dictated the Free Press’ unethical coverage, Neavling told me: “That’s not something you consider when writing a story.” WATCH:

2) On my story about EPA hiding the detection of vinyl chloride in East Palestine from the public —which is a scandal indicating the agency is withholding critical public health information about cancerous chemicals still threatening East Palestine and Pennsylvania residents — I’ve communicated with Josh Funk, a reporter with the Associated Press [AP]. Funk has previously reported on the East Palestine derailment and chemical detonation. He told me, “after your story ran, EPA confirmed the vinyl chloride discovery to me late yesterday afternoon.” He also said he was working to follow up on “this development” while also working to “finish up a couple other stories.”

Let me help Funk and the AP out…a development is when your kid is finally able to utter P-O-O-P to inform you when they’ve gone #2. In contrast, a federal government agency—after a multi-billion dollar railroad company chemically nuked a small American town—hiding from the public that it found toxic chemicals over a year after the chemical detonation…is a scandal. It should be reported immediately so that the affected local residents know the health threats still present.

So, naturally, since Funk confirmed my story was correct, he has followed up with his own story in the AP, right?

Eight days after our communication— in which he confirmed my story was right—he and the AP still haven’t reported it. Journalistically, I know of no higher priority story that can be sitting on Funk’s desk than the federal government caught hiding the existence of highly toxic chemicals still in East Palestine…while residents grow sicker and sicker with a slew of ongoing symptoms (including strokes, seizures, bloody noses, bloody stools, dizziness, headaches, migraines, memory loss, fatigue, brain fog, blurred vision, body tingling, lip tingling, lip numbness, tremors, and more).

It’s not just AP. Here’s other outlets I either pitched doing this story for OR sent to after I published on my own.

And here is how many of them who have reported on it since…

In fact, Stuart Leavenworth, the Washington Post’s climate and environment policy editor, responded to my pitch on doing the story for them: “We are going to pass. But thanks for bringing this to our attention.” When I respectfully asked why they were passing on this critical public health story, he didn’t respond. Have they covered it after I self-published? Nope. I also spoke with Kelly Kennedy, an investigative reporter with Cleveland 19 News after she reached out to me before I had reported the story (she was responding to a tweet in which I said I was looking for an outlet to report a big EP story in).

Kelly: “Hi! I’m a reporter with 19 in Cleveland. Someone sent me your post about East Palestine.”

Me: “Yes, I've reported a story showing that the EPA recently detected vinyl chloride in East Palestine--and dug it out and didn't notify the public. Pitching outlets to do for one--would love to do w/ OH outlet. Willing to co-byline it. I've already written it.”

After that, she didn’t respond. The next day, I sent her the story after I self-published it. She responded, the next day, “I’m out of the country until next week but I will talk to you when I’m back. Thank you for the info!”

Crickets since then.

In fairness, maybe she actually wanted to cover the story but her editor above her shot her down (this happens a lot). Who knows. But the bottomline: a Cleveland reporter is aware of my story, is aware it’s true, and her outlet hasn’t covered it. Cleveland is 90 miles from East Palestine.

I also learned other local OH/PA outlets made calls on the story—confirmed it was true—and then decided to not report it. According to Christina Siceloff, a resident of Darlington PA who lives six miles from the derailment (and my on-the-record source for the story), she had a couple of journalists reach out to her after my story published. “They asked about the vinyl chloride and they read your article and they wanted to know more about the story to know the whole story.” WATCH BELOW:

If they read my story, these reporters were clearly being disingenuous. The story had included text messages where an EPA official told Christina that the agency had recently detected vinyl chloride in soil at the derailment site (yet didn’t tell the public). The EPA also confirmed it to me for the story. Hence…there was nothing for these other journalists to independently confirm. They already had the confirmed facts and could have reported it.

On what planet—or sane media system—do national and local Ohio and Pennsylvania news outlets not find it obviously newsworthy that the EPA detected toxic chemicals— in a town that was chemically nuked 16 months ago—and didn’t tell anyone? The only one I can think of is one where the news outlets people depend on are consciously choosing to hide critical public health threats from the public.

3) On my story about the FBI investigating the release of toxic gases by Graphic Packaging International into a poor Black community in Kalamazoo, MI—and Governor Whitmer’s administration’s approval of major tax breaks and a significant bond deal to help GPI expand—not one Michigan or national outlet covered it.

The media’s abdication in covering all these stories is truly dumbfounding—but this one in particular is stunning. If you haven’t noticed, major national media like the New York Times and Washington Post has been showing Whitmer with adoration and puff profile pieces as they build her up as as potential 2028 Democratic frontrunner. So…you would think a story about the FBI investigating a multi-billion dollar packaging company’s toxic gassing of a poor Black community—and Whitmer’s decision to help them expand —might make it into the newspaper!

Apparently up is down, the sky is green, and what is clearly major news…isn’t?

Not so fast. After I broke the story, I learned of at least one outlet and reporter who told a local Kalamazoo resident that they couldn’t cover the story—for financial reasons. In this case, I won’t name names or the outlet because it was told to me in confidence. With that said, a reporter with a major Michigan outlet told the activist they couldn’t cover because some of the corporate advertisers for their media outlet were connected to Graphic Packaging (GPI has a net worth of $8.4 billion, donates to various Kalamazoo grade schools, colleges charities, etc).

With all of these stories, there is a collective through line and pattern; they involve poor communities: two majority Black and one majority white, in which national media journalists are completely disconnected from and don’t care all that much about aside from the initial breaking news and visuals (i.e. long lines of cars waiting for water in Flint, explosive detonation of rail cars carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine). It’s not only national journalists; the truth is, most local journalists who cover particular cities don’t even live in those cities that they cover. I’m not criticizing journalists for where they choose to live, but it’s a simple fact: if you’re not routinely on-the-ground, talking to affected residents in the communities you cover, you are by default…disconnected.

I didn’t write this out of ego or to stir some shit with other outlets. This isn’t about me being upset that MY STORIES aren’t getting attention. I would say the same thing if all of these stories were reported by someone else. This is about it being scandalous that the gatekeepers for vital information to reach the masses—unfortunately still the mainstream media—are consciously closing the gates and locking out life-or-death information the public needs to know.

I guess it makes sense. After all, people won’t organize to storm the gates if they don’t know their house is on fire.

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