Is Newton the next Flint?
I’m hoping the impacts on Newton won’t be quite so grave, but the news coverage the story has been getting seems to tell a different story, one of a town that essentially is a company. The stories across the country have been touching and surprisingly well-researched (several out-of-state papers have written their own reports instead of using wire services). Here are the four stories I thought were the best-written:
- Chicago Tribune
- NPR’s All Things Considered — A piece by a former Newton resident who reflects on Newton’s history with Maytag
- AP (via Washington Post) — has a photo of the Whirlpool CEO giving a press conference in front of a refrigerator?
- Detroit Free Press — quotes an expert who says that this won’t be as devastating as this type of closure would be for auto workers
And the Register has comments from all four major gubernatorial candidates, who seem to say roughly the same things. Except Nussle’s comment is much shorter, because he can’t criticize a company that gave him two $1,000 donations last year (and that was just for his congressional campaign account).
2 comments May 11th, 2006
