Watch the CEO Of Freedom Industries Offend Every West Virginian Without Water

On Friday morning, roughly 300,000 West Virginia residents were told to not drink their water after news leaked that 5,000 gallons of a chemical used in coal processing flowed into the Elk River close to the intake pipes for the regional water company. Luckily, the problem was identified quickly, and the West Virginia American Water Company did it's best to inform people of the problem.

What didn't go so well was Friday night's press conference in which Gary Southern, CEO of Freedom Industries, the chemical company responsible for the spill, spoke to reporters to "apologize" for the problem.

Yep, you saw the same thing as me. As Southern was stumbling over himself to apologize for the fact that 300,000 West Virginians haven't had clean water for drinking or washing, he took a big, delicious swig out of a bottle of water. As local reporter Kallie Cart went to work on the CEO, Southern continued to give everyone the middle finger/drink his delicious water and evade as many questions as possible. It would almost have been impressive if it wasn't so awful. 

Meanwhile thousands and thousands of West Virginia have been struggling to meet with basic life needs. Long lines are filling up grocery stores where customers are limited to buying four cases of water at a time, and law enforcement officials have been assisting residents in as many ways as possible. 

Image Credit: AP

Image Credit: AP

Southern's snafu was the second infamous bottled water moment in recent memory. Hopefully it will be remembered as an awesomely hilarious and depressing example of corporations being wildly disconnected from the real world.

Image Credit: Twitter