![]() The nation as a whole, and the states involved, should continue to bear some responsibility for helping Appalachia, but the region's problems are also local problems. Kennedy campaigned in the Eastern Kentucky counties where ABC did its reporting. Still, by focusing fresh attention on the problems, the reports could help accomplish what Sawyer, a Kentucky native, suggested in her eloquent closing line: "These Kentuckians say the beauty of the mountains is calling to all of us, to restart that conversation that began more than 40 years ago." That’s when the Appalachian Regional Commission was created as part of the War on Poverty and Robert F. Possible solutions were relegated to the last two minutes of the follow-up, and compressed into a blur of ideas (infrastructure and job training, green jobs, computers for every student, expanded health care) with only two methods of turning them into reality: stimulus money and philanthropy, one of the means suggested by this writer and the one that made it onto air. But its “20/20” follow-up of seven and a half minutes consisted mainly of retelling the story for viewers who hadn’t seen it before and reporting on the charity extended to the children as a result of the report, and on promises by Pepsi, the maker of Mountain Dew, to provide a second mobile unit for the chief adult hero of the story, dentist Edwin Smith of Barbourville, and help him with education and recruitment of dentists to the region. To address possible solutions, ABC repeated the tack it took in a similar documentary Sawyer did on children in Camden, N.J., following up with reports on reaction and solutions. We felt that it was an important part of his narrative and was another example of the toxic dysfunction Shawn faced in his daily life." We worked with them closely to determine what they felt comfortable sharing. Producer Claire Weinraub told the Institute that Grim's family volunteered the information,Īnd "It took us completely by surprise. . There was internal debate at ABC on how to handle the topic of incest. ![]() If that 1:45, and maybe a bit more, had been used to report on causes and possible solutions, “A Hidden America” would have been a more complete package. Many viewers were also troubled by its report of an incest allegation in the family of football player Shawn Grim, which consumed a minute and 45 seconds of the 39-minute report and amplified perhaps the worst stereotype of Central Appalachia – a stereotype that isn’t supported by research. That was the main flaw many journalists saw in the documentary, which was long on emotion and short on context. That’s as poetic as most hymns,” said Dee Davis, who grew up in Hazard and runs the Center for Rural Strategies, based at Whitesburg.Īnd contrary to claims that the documentary was a rehash of old issues, it revealed something new: that a favorite soft drink in the region has so much sugar, caffeine and acid that it is responsible for widespread tooth decay and has even earned from dentists a name for a disorder: “Mountain Dew Mouth.”īut when journalism illuminates problems that raise questions of public policy, it’s obliged to offer suggestions for solutions. We will always remember the stories of the football star living in a truck to escape his family’s depravity, the pre-teen girl struggling for years with her mother’s drug problems, and the girl who said “butter and ranch” are sometimes all her family refrigerator has. She told that story through the lives of children who have been victimized by the failings of adults and are struggling to overcome. It aimed to remind or reveal that “half a million people live in the kind of poverty we cannot imagine,” as Diane Sawyer said in her introduction to the national audience of nearly 11 million. Though it made a brief reference to the 1960s, the “20/20” show was not intended to be a progress report on Appalachia as a whole. Many Appalachian viewers of the first report had a familiar gripe, that it showed only the bad side of the region. But what action will ensue? That is the question the people of the region, and their journalists, need to answer. The ABC documentary “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains” and its short follow-up stirred a lot of talk in Central Appalachia this month. Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Institute for Rural Journalism & Community Issues - ABC and Appalachiaĭocumentary, follow-up on children of Appalachia didn't go far enough, but could help journalists have a role
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