From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. This week, the Flint water crisis, poisons accumulating over nearly two years, finally got the national spotlight.

Here's the president in Detroit on Wednesday.

And I know that if I was a parent up there,

I would be beside myself that my kid's health could be at risk. Lead, heavy metals,

trihalomethane, a product of chlorine, e-coli. So how did this happen?

In an apologetic state of the state address on Tuesday,

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder promised more transparency,

likely because his state is one of only two

that shields the governor's office from open records laws.

Tomorrow I will release my 2014 and 2015 emails regarding Flint to you, the citizens.

So you will have answers to your questions about what we've done

and what we're doing to make this right for the families of Flint.

The 247 pages of emails released this week include only the governor's communications, not emails

among his staff. They also miss 2013, the origin of the crisis. They're also heavily redacted.

But they do shed some light. This is to Rick Snyder from his chief of staff in late September.

Subject line is Flint water.

It says, quote, I can't figure out why the state is responsible. So here's what we know. In late 2013,

Flint, a city in such dire financial straits that it has an emergency manager in charge,

decided to cut ties with Detroit's costly water system.

But the new system Flint had chosen wouldn't be ready for two years, so in April of 2014,

the city decided to tap the polluted Flint River.

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