It has taken a long time for the media to report what's happening on the ground in East Palestine, Ohio.
It was barely a blip in the news cycle for over a week, but once the story started gaining traction on social media over the weekend, the media is ever-so-slowly beginning to provide long-needed updates.
NPR reported Tuesday morning that health concerns are growing in the community.
The evacuation order was lifted on Wednesday and since then, there have been a growing number of reports about people experiencing a burning sensation in their eyes, animals falling ill and a strong odor lingering in the town.
Some business owners and East Palestine residents have filed lawsuits against Norfolk Southern, saying the company was negligent and demanding the company fund court-supervised medical screenings for serious illnesses that may be caused by exposure to those chemicals.
Despite this, the EPA says "the air is safe to breathe and the water is safe to drink in East Palestine."
Other outlets, like NBC, are only beginning to report concerns about chicken and fish dying – even though outlets like ours were sharing videos and pictures days ago.
But there still seems to be a lack of investigative on-the-ground reporting. There have been few news cameras to provide an insight into what is happening – to corroborate Twitter and TikTok videos, to interview local residents in person, to shift through details from local authorities and the EPA staff there, to sniff out obfuscation, and to question why FEMA hasn't gotten involved in a potential multi-state emergency.
To that end, private citizens have taken up the job that the media should be doing:
It's hard to sift out truth from fiction here on the sidelines. But right now, the mainstream media's response seems to be, "The White House says a federal agency is handling it and that everything is fine."
