From the leaders in environmental news we can use, CBS 42, Sherri Jackson and Ken Lass bring us full circle with the pervasive contamination in north Birmingham and beyond in their upcoming summation documentary on "Deadly Deception."
In what should be a contender for a well-deserved RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, this groundbreaking series from CBS 42 proves that one state media organization understands the concept of being unafraid and bold.
It's happening all over Alabama: a flippant attitude of "better dead than unprofitable" permeates the economic development platform of this state. Jobs and profits trump clean air, clean water and the rights of citizens to exist in communities with a reasonable expectation that they will be safe from exposures that can kill them.
Years have passed, and many Alabamians are just now learning their right to live safely in their neighborhoods has been taken away from them by corporate Alabama. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that it's taken death after senseless death for these people to find out what they have been living with.
Why has it taken this long and why did so many have to die? How many more will?
Don't we have a Dr. "in charge of Alabama now" sitting in the Governor's mansion? Has he cast aside his Hippocratic Oath in favor of a monetary oath owed to his BARD benefactors and similar corporate campaign contributors? The same question stands for our lawmakers: where do their true loyalties lie?
There must be an end to this "deadly deception" and the paying to pollute mindset before any more lives are lost, communities are irreversibly ruined and more schoolchildren are sickened from the complete lack of responsibility by those charged with supposedly keeping us all safe.
Anything less is not just a "troubling situation"--it's a fatal vision.
CBS 42 Deadly Deception Documentary-1
I hope they cover this with a wide net and blow the whistle on the other big offender in north Bham: Drummond. Why hasn't any media outlet reported on the USA Today report "The Smokestack Effect-Toxic Schools?"
ReplyDeleteHow many more studies do we need after that one? The EPA has completely dismissed that report and acts like Johns Hopkins and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst were amateurs in their own year long study.
If all our media outlets spent more time looking into this issue, they wouldn't have time for the fluff that passes for news they regurgitate ad nausea.
ReplyDeleteHow about a BARD documentary?
ReplyDeletePerhaps a writing campaign should be started to Bentley reminding him that the hipocratic oath he took as a physician should trump and oath to provide and protect good ol boy politics in Alabama.
ReplyDeleteNow there's an idea who's time has come 5. Maybe the folks need to be reminded of who BARD is.
ReplyDeleteBusiness Alliance for Responsible Development
The Orwellian creation of Dr. Frankenbama Stephen E. Bradley
Board of Directors
John Grogan Alabama Power Company
Don Erwin The Barber Companies, Inc.
Glenn Siddle Newcastle Homes
Bruce Windham Drummond Company, Inc.
Bart Fletcher Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders
Sam Lowrey Liberty Park Joint Venture, LLP
Jody Saiia Saiia Construction, LLC
Tom Howard USS Real Estate
Business Alliance for Responsible Development Members Include:
* Alabama Associated General Contractors
* Alabama Power Company
* Alagasco
* The Barber Companies, Inc.
* Bayer Properties
* Birmingham Association of Realtors
* Drummond Company, Inc.
* First Commercial Bank
* Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders
* Jenkins Brick
* Liberty Park Joint Venture, LLP
* Ready Mix USA
* RealtySouth
* Saiia Construction, LLC
* Sherman Industries
* Spectrum Environmental Services, Inc.
* Stonegate Realty
* Thompson Tractor
* USS Real Estate
Doing the wrong thing is not only profitable it ensures the power brokers get their way in all arenas of state doings.
ReplyDeleteNo one these interests are concerned with the human costs if it cuts into their dirty money.
ADEM is a creation of the machine. No one should be surprised they get nothing right. Region 4 EPA is also corrupted. See the writings of Dr. Robert Bullard on the Region 4 problems. This is all window dressing and a scheme.
ReplyDeleteI've been a fan of theirs since 2000 when they were the lone voice in the wilderness on Jeffco's sewer scandal. No other news outlet was giving a serious look into the supersewer or even contemplated that corruption might be involved (sheesh!), but 42 GOT it
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing CBS is doing something because the Birmingham News never will! Look through some of the pictures in their race relations coverage summit. One has publisher Pam Siddall shaking paws with Stephen Bradley and both are smiling!!!!
ReplyDeleteEditorial writer Joey Kennedy is one of Dr. Witherspoon's biggest cheerleaders from his recent columns. Yep, that's the same Dr. Witherspoon who knew about the school contamination and SAID NOTHING!
To hell with the studies.
ReplyDeleteThey already know what's wrong.
Do something to fix it already!
Lean on the governor, lean on Greg Canfield, lean on the BBA, tell all of them ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Profits do not come before lives!
While you are at it CBS, get after the farce on the coal ash legislation that passed in the last session.
Where was the illustrious Witherspoon during the recent environmental justice meeting?
ReplyDeleteNowhere near the place.
Where was Birmingham Mayor William Bell?
He slipped in in the last few minutes for a photo op.
Natch.
IT'S ABOUT TIME!
ReplyDeleteIs that a picked over carcass we're now seeing? Here's a clue for you Siddall, try to do some actual real reporting and investigative journalism without BARD or the BBA approving the copy before it goes to print for once.
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.al.com/businessnews/2011/08/the_birmingham_news_announces.html
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama --- The Birmingham News Co. announced to its employees today a voluntary buyout opportunity and a mandatory one-week furlough for full-time workers.
The moves are designed to cut costs and give the company more flexibility as it moves beyond the traditional newspaper business and expands its multimedia strategy, said Pam Siddall, president and publisher of The News.
"We have to face a new economic reality," she said. "We must be entrepreneurial, nimble and creative."
There is no doctor in charge.
ReplyDeleteHe shed that persona for the predictable business as the mules want political hack.