[eric_h]

I wonder to what extent Michael Moore's Flint pedigree influenced the media.

I'm guessing it's decidedly non-zero.

Edit: this was not intended as a dig at Michael Moore or anyone else. The fact that he made a documentary featuring Flint means that more people than otherwise should be are aware of the place, hence, media stories about it are more likely to gain traction with the general population. Michael Moore humanized Flint. His making it recognizeable, I think, aided in the rise of this particular story, IMO.

I also think the name of the city helped its presence in the news cycle. Flint, being short and a homonym for another English word is far more memorable than say "Scarborough" (which, amusingly, was the first name that came to mind when I tried to come up with the most memorable unmemorable name for a town.)

[mturmon]

The problem is, this kind of speculation really goes nowhere. It's unprovable. And, even if there was a connection between peripheral awareness of Flint due to Moore and the legs this story has...so what?

[eric_h]

Fair enough. I disagree that it's unprovable, but I'm certainly not going to reach any solid conclusions by posting on a forum :)