Many are asking why media weren’t more on top of the Flint water crisis. We talk to Ron Dzonkowski, columnist for the Detroit Free Press and board member of the Michigan Coalition for Open Government, about the cloudiness of Michigan’s sunshine laws.
In his State of the State address this January, Governor Rick Snyder announced he was releasing all of his emails from 2014-2015 related to the Flint water crisis. But he didn’t have to do that. Michigan is one of only two states that exempts the governor’s office Freedom of Information Act requests, and many journalists say the state’s weak public records laws put a wrench in media efforts to find the truth about the Flint water crisis.
Current State talks about how the crisis is shaping the conversation about government transparency in the state with Ron Dzwonkowski, a longtime columnist at the Detroit Free Press and board member of the Michigan Coalition for Open Government.
