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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-07/west-virginias-bleak-outlook/3718796

December 11, 2011
Australian news segment on McDowell shows all the bad, none of the good

By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph


— McDowell County has received another black eye. This time the perpetrator is a news station from Australia.

You might ask why Australians would be interested in a southern West Virginia county. We asked the same thing. The peg for the story was joblessness in America, and the reporter attempted to relate that to counties that have been suffering for some time.

The connection of jobless rates to McDowell County was fuzzy, at best. The reporting was one-sided and geared to the end goal of getting viewers to watch the broadcast — not actually report the reality of the situation.

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Of course, the news segment (and I hesitate to call it “news”) begins with the strains of Appalachian music — as if no one in this region listens to any tunes that don’t include a banjo. (Playing to stereotypes, perhaps?) Then there are the scenes of timeworn buildings and dilapidated mobile homes, not to mention the junked sofa sitting forlornly in a field of brush.

An interview with musician Alan Johnston follows. He speaks of the hard life of coal miners. It’s not too bad, or inaccurate. We then get a brief history of the coalfields, and a segment with state Senator John Pat Fanning.

Fanning speaks of how it was back in the day, when coal was king. He also laments the problem of out-sourcing jobs to other nations. All the while, photos of homes in disrepair fill the screen. John Pat should know better. As a veteran lawmaker, one would think he could recognize a snake in the grass.

Then we move on to John Pat’s business — a funeral home. A business that is still thriving because McDowell is a county of “old people,” he says.

The next scene shows a young couple, also bemoaning the sorry state of McDowell. “Checks, food stamps, drugs ... that’s about it,” the young man says. “ ... they ain’t nothing to do.” The camera then shows the man and his friends stripping a house of metal. “All my life I’ve been on drugs,” he says.

Moving on, we learn that the economy is so bad here, the recession has barely taken a toll. The next part of the segment is an interview with McDowell County playwright Jean Battlo. “We’ve been down so long it looks like up to us,” she says.

Battlo speaks of possible art and tourism initiatives for the county. In the context of this news piece, it seems as if her optimism is the token upside of the story.

After a few more scenes of junked vehicles, musician Johnston speaks of how West Virginia is inspirational to songwriters. Positive words, but they fall short in the grand scheme of this forged news piece.

The segment ends with John Pat singing a ditty about Cinder Bottom. Once again, he should have known better.

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While watching the video in the newsroom, McDowell County native and Daily Telegraph City Editor Charles Owens provided an ongoing commentary. It was obvious he was frustrated by the portrayal of his home county, the Free State.

“Everything in the segment was 100 percent correct,” he said. “But it’s only one side of the story.”

And what is the other side?

• Not shown is the new multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art River View High School constructed just a few miles down the road.

• Not shown is the five-screen Marquee Cinemas in the middle of downtown Welch. How many small towns have a five-screen cinema smack dab in the middle of their downtown, within walking distance from homes?

• Not shown is the Walmart supercenter in Kimball, or the Magic/Goodsons/Wendy’s shopping center on U.S. Route 52.

• Not shown is the new Southside Elementary School, the new Mount View Middle School or the new Bradshaw Elementary School.

• Not shown is the Pioneer Bank in downtown Iaeger — not far from Fanning Funeral Home, which was shown.

• Not shown is the large Anawalt dam and fishing area, the new Martha Moore Memorial Park in downtown Welch or the new Hatfield-McCoy Trail in Northfork.

• Not shown is the Indian Ridge Industrial Park, the Coalfields Expressway construction site and the new federal prison.

• Not shown are local landmarks such as the Sterlin Drive-In in Welch, Cape Coalwood Park in Coalwood, the Kimball War Memorial or the new housing project under construction on Tom’s Mountain in Welch.

State delegate Clif Moore was also notably absent from the segment. Despite his recent problems, Moore is known to be an outspoken advocate and cheerleader of McDowell County.

After watching the segment Charles told us, “Getting slammed by the outside media is nothing new to those of us with Free State connections. But getting slammed by the folks Down Under is probably a first. Was it a slow news week in Australia?”

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Perhaps most of us in southern West Virginia are accustom