Reviewing ‘Children of the Mountains’

I finally got a chance to watch online the ABC News documentary “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains.” In exploring poverty in Appalachia, the show treads ground already well covered in other works, including Frontline’s “Country Boys” (2006), Elizabeth Barret’s “Stranger with a Camera” (2000) and Rory Kennedy’s “American Hollow” (1999).

And sadly, there is not much new to report: 45 years after Harry Caudill brought the plight of Appalachia to national attention in his “Night Comes to the Cumberlands,” some people in the region continue to struggle with poverty, disease, addiction, environmental degradation and stereotypes.

“Children of the Mountains” draws on many of the standard clichés of documentaries examining the plight of the rural poor: weathered faces with toothless grins, squalid living conditions, and gospel singing and banjo picking. Oh, and of course, the mountain folks get subtitles — because they speak a language network TV producers think the rest of America doesn’t understand.

By focusing on youth, host Diane Sawyer does offer a compelling angle to explore the effects of poverty. But the program lacked the context that could have put these stories into better perspective. How do the numbers of young people living in poverty in Appalachia compare to other regions of the country (urban and rural)? What makes Appalachian poverty unique? Why after a myriad of social programs and millions of dollars in government aid are the problems there so intractable? Ron Eller (the former director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky) and Dee Davis (founder of the Center for Rural Strategies) made all-too-brief appearances in the program. Given more airtime, they could have provided these details.

But context and balance don’t make for gripping television, and “Children of the Mountains” was focused on dramatic archetypes: the sports star struggling against the odds to find success; the child playing parent to a drug-addicted mother; and the young father doing whatever it takes to support his new family. They are characters we want to root for, especially given the enormous challenges they face.

Yet ABC does them (and viewers) a disservice by not showing how these kids fit into a greater picture of poverty in America. By so tightly focusing on central Appalachia, it’s easy to dismiss this as an isolated problem in a region usually portrayed as backward and hopeless.

Sawyer (who opened the program saying she was returning home to Kentucky, even though she was raised a good three hours from the communities featured in the program) obviously cares about the young people in the show, and I hope her coverage will benefit them. The program was a Friday night ratings hit for ABC with almost 11 million viewers. Dozens of people commenting on the show’s discussion board wanted to help (they’re being directed to contribute to the Christian Appalachian Project).

So while the program could have been a better piece of journalism, it did succeed at what TV tends to do best these days: reduce complex issues to simple stories designed to tug at the heartstrings. And although the program did little to counteract the stereotypes of the region, it served as a potent reminder of the stark challenges still facing some of our fellow Kentuckians.