Diane Sawyer's ABC documentary “Hidden America: Children of the Mountains” continues to provoke reaction. Tonight on "World News Tonight," Sawyer reported that Pepsico will provide another van for Dr. Edwin Smith of Barbourville, Ky., who turned a trailer truck into a dental office and tagged Pepsico product Mountain Dew as a major source of tooth decay in the region. Sawyer also said Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi "told me personally" that the company wants to work with Smith on education and recruiting more dentists to the region.
Critics say the piece portrayed only one side of Appalachia, and contributed to stereotypes. A leading Appalachian broadcaster says the "20/20" program made him "mad as hell," but not for the reasons one might expect. "That anger is not directed so much at Diane Sawyer and ABC, but instead at me, my friends and my associates. What are we doing to help?" asks Neil Middleton, news director at WYMT-TV in Hazard, Ky.
"If we are honest, we must admit the facts of the documentary are true and sometimes the truth hurts," writes Middleton in his blog. "Are we really mad at Diane Sawyer for reporting on a serious problem, or are we upset that someone is reminding us of images we would rather ignore? Remember, our mandate as journalists is to 'give voice to the voiceless,' or as newsman Harry Golden once described his job: 'To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.' The images we saw the other night should make us all uncomfortable." Middleton says that, instead of complaining about the representation of the region, "maybe we should ask ourselves, 'What have I done to help correct this problem?'" (Read more) To that we say "amen."
No matter what Appalachian residents are doing or not doing, people around the country have sent more than $60,000 to the Christian Appalachian Project to help the three children primarily spotlighted in the program, reports Mary Meehan of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
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