Controversy over CNN's report from Clay County

State Sen. Robert Stivers fired off a letter on Tuesday criticizing the way Clay County was depicted in a CNN story on Monday.

"I am sure that it is very popular in your rarefied circles to look down on rural America," wrote Stivers, R-Manchester. "The Clay County you showed on your broadcast does not match the county I call home. In fact, it seems that you went out of your way to video-tape your stereotype of Manchester residents."

But WYMT's Marie Luby reports that Manchester Mayor Carmen Lewis, who was interviewed by CNN, was fine with the story.

"I didn't think it was that bad," Lewis told WYMT. "If we're portrayed as we don't need help, then we're not going to get help."

Here's the video. Tell us what you think.



- John Stamper

Comments

[page one reader]

didn't that stupid page one site have that video last week

[Frank]

How helpless does this Mayor come across? Who needs a hand up when you can get a hand out?

[Kyle]

I don't think CNN did anything other than report the truth in Clay County. Sometimes people like to ignore the truth and pretend bad things like this are not happening but it does not change the fact that this is happening. All CNN did was tell a true story.

[Jesse Gabbard]

They only make $9700 per year but Lord God they can afford a $5000 four-wheeler. What ever happened to personal responsiblity and bettering yourself? Maybe, just maybe, they should have stayed in school and maybe they could have gotten a better job instead of living off the government.

[Robert Cumming]

Reminds me of that Off Broadway Play "The Kentucky Cycle".

[howard]

Clay County stats primary election - there are practically no Dems in Clay County!

Democratic Voter Statistics
Total Registered: 2,013
Total Voted: 649

Republican Voter Statistics
Total Registered: 13,092
Total Voted: 2,569

[Doralee]

"A woman's place is in the home!", says the lady chillin' at the greasy spoon lunch counter in the middle of the day. Priceless.

How much do they spend per capita on cigarettes in Clay County? Lottery tickets?

How much of the $9,700 per capita income is from state and federal funds?

What is the unemployment rate in Clay County?

How republicans con dirt poor people into voting for them amazes me. It is one of the true marvels of American politics. A party who shows nothing but contempt and disdain for the poor gets their votes by using God, guns & gays ... brilliant politics, horrible result.

[Noah needs a brain]

Likewise, how dems con Dirt poor people into voting for them is baffling. In fact, your buddy Jonathan miller put it best. "We're a poor state, we're supposed to have dems lead us". Well they have for the last 5 years sans Ernie fletcher and the folks in clay county still hurting. Same goes for a lot of the eky counties. A lot of which vote overwhelmingly democrat. in fact, isn't it funny that CNN picked out a Republican strong hold that is dirt poor to do an expose on. Why couldn't they have chosen a largely democratic county, say perry county? Biased. NO WAY.

[Ida needs a brain]

Last 50 years. Sorry.

[Doralee]

needs a brain - points well taken. The political system in the state is broken. Small single-party counties don't do themselves any favors by being so.

[clay county girl]

clay co is a beautiful place. what cnn showed on tv was all the places, just behind them at pats snack bar is a beautiful town, clean, busy, very nice place to live. i think it was ok to show the bad but they could have shown the beatiful places also.

[mark]

I love Clay County.. I would not live any other place in the world.. and people who dont work.. its their fault, they are jobs.. wendys and mcdonalds and pizza hut are always hiring.. go work there.. for everyone else that thinks this is right.. i happen to love my life, and I am not complaining one bit, id rather live poor then to have so many bills that i couldnt buy food.. i have what i need because i do without things that i want.. and now that im bill free, unlike others. i live wonderful

[Bill Adkins]

Reality bites -- and Clay County deserves the Republican government it votes for -- although a good portion of that government is now sitting in a federal prison.

[Dennis]

CNN made a reasonable mistake. It chose a county which census data show is demographically poor without knowing the history of Kentucky. Thus, they ended up with a "Republican" county which, in the words of John Prine, "voted for Eisenhower because Lincoln won the war." As a former legal aid attorney, I was amazed in the 1980s at the number of Owsley County residents who had no idea that President Reagan (who they voted for because their families had been Republicans since they supported the Union in the war between the states)was actually working to reduce health, food and supportive services to the needy in their midst. Of course, CNN would have found the opposite at the other end of the state: Democrats who who think and act like Republicans but vote Democrat because those counties supported the South and have continued the tradition of being Democrats without thinking through what that means in 2008, as opposed to choosing a party because their daddies and grandaddies had always been .

[Jim Anderson Stivers]

I would like to say "BRAVO" for the , not kin to me, STIVERS and his comments about Clay County.

This media coverage may be RECENT but, it is not new. As long as we project this national image Kentucky will always be one step behind. If the political environment, in the region desires, for things to be different then perhaps it might be a worthy consideration to think about how many times they elect the same people to represent them in the General Assembly.

Some fokes, just don't care to live IN THE CITY. Their rural way of living,in Appalachia, is good enough for them.

Perhaps, this exposure of a Kentucky County appearing to be so poor that life is miserable is the way the meida hype sees it in the more populated towns. But, one thing you can be sure of . . . for many the slow and not to forceful way of life in rural America is what they want.

As in all states . . . ALWAYS there will be an outmigration for the young as they gain more exposure to places in the USA of interest and the opportunity to have a GOOD JOB. But for those that choose to continue their way of life in rural America it would seem they have accepted their lifestyle and to those living it . . . it ain't so bad as the media portrays.

And actually, what is wrong with that?

"I just wanna say!"
JIM ANDERSON STIVERS

[Cletus McGuire]

I travel to every county in the state at least once a year for work, and I will tell you that I always DREAD going to Clay County and Harlan County the most. Clay Co is a hole in the earth and there is nothing for people to do, the stench of despair in the air, and 4-wheelers are the primary mode of transportation, and prescription drug abuse is a way of life (not something out of the ordinary) for many. Harlan Co is so hard to get to due to the crappy roads that even if you can find a restaurant after you get there, you're so sick at your stomach from the ride there that you couldn't possibly eat. SO, after seeing this, I don't think it was anymore bias than anything else we see in the media. They saw a GREAT need, they talked about it, and MAYBE it will somehow in the future help get some funding there or some industry there so that people can make more than 9700 bucks a year! Ignoring the problem, as Sen. Stivers (a rich guy) so often has done since his ascension into the State Senate, will NEVER help the people of this area, and will only keep them in the dark for decades to come.

[Char]

I am so upset that CNN went to such a poor area of Eastern Kentucky. They love to make us look like uneducated hicks from the sticks.
I'm sure CNN could have driven a couple of miles and filmed educated, hard working people who are not sitting back asking for hand outs.
You will see these types of people and situations in every state. Why do they always portray Eastern Kentucky in such a negative light???

[Bill Adkins]

What CNN saw in Clay County is real, it's rather the Republican model community, made up of 'haves' and 'have nots' with no true middle class. That condition is more evident as you proceed east where coal creates greater extremes.

[KyTrunks]

Mr. Atkins, can you not look at an issues of poverty, lack of opportunity and outsiders' perceptions of our state without injecting partisan party politics into them?

[He's a sick joke]

No, he cannot. Mr. Adkins has no capacity for an objective thought. He is so filled with bitterness toward those he perceives as different from him that he can only lash out and deride. Why would anyone trust him for legal advice? Why would anyone listen to him at all?

[Take Off Those GOP Issued Blinders]

If politics were not injected into the issue here, trunks, then one would not be dealing with reality. Lack of opportunity is a result of that partisan politics practiced in the subject areas. E. Ky has been treated like a colony for so long, been raped for so long, the citizens have determined to lay back and 'enjoy' it. I.e., the severance tax. Put it all back into E. Ky instead of spreading it about the Bluegrass and see the result (carefully, there are predators everywhere). Every once in a while someone proposes a project with incentives for the capitalist, i.e., the 'chair factory' in Letcher County. Come in, take the breaks, skim the cream and exit. That's 'industry' in E. Ky. Coal comes and goes, boom and bust, but E. Ky stays the same. Where are the roads in and out? Oh, yes - the Hal Rogers Parkway. Funny.

As for you, joke, you are indeed a joke. You can't even defend a position much less take one other than as if the Republicans were a college sporting team. Why don't you simply shout "Go Big Elephants" for all the depth and reason you display. That and you're too gutless to use your name.

[Right!]

As opposed to arrogant like you to post your own radical, left-wing, socialist propaganda website!

[Really?]

"Lack of opportunity is a result of that partisan politics practiced in the subject areas. E. Ky has been treated like a colony for so long, been raped for so long, the citizens have determined to lay back and 'enjoy' it." Bill Adkins.

Dating back to the great War on Poverty and the Great Society of Democrat icon Pres. Lyndon Johnson?

Most of eastern Kentucky is heavily Democratic. So are you saying all of your famous Democratic entitlement programs have backfired and made us eastern Kentuckians lazy and dependent on the government?

[Thank you, Comrade]

"Every once in a while someone proposes a project with incentives for the capitalist,"

Thank you, Comrade Lenin.

[Take Off Those GOP Issued Blinders]

The term 'capitalist' should have been placed in quotes as here because so many of those in quote 'capitalists' have been thieves (not in quotes). How many of you (btw, 'oh really' I'll compare my Letcher origins to your 'us eastern Kentuckians' bona fides any day) have seen the hit and run 'industrial park' scams in E. Ky? How many grown up and vacant such projects? How many 'take the money and run' companies? That's what I'm referring to.

[Take Off Those GOP Issued Blinders]

"For Whiting Manufacturing in Wolfe County, the state provided a $450,000 cash grant to boost the bedclothes maker's work force by 60, but the jobs never materialized. The company was never asked to repay a penny."

"For TexStyle, Inc., a home decor company in Manchester, a $750,000 grant was supposed to help raise employment from 100 to 180, but records indicate the company had only 141 workers four years later. Officials asked for a $121,875 repayment, but the company filed for bankruptcy protection months later."

http://www.kentucky.com/235/story/95847.html

Kentucky Rural Economic Development Act

aka KREDA:

$303.6 million

The state has approved 390 KREDA deals over the past 16 years to bring industrial companies to high-unemployment counties. The program lets companies reduce or eliminate their income taxes and retain a portion of payroll taxes for 15 years.

Example: American Bag of Stearns promised to create 355 jobs in exchange for two tax incentives worth up to $4.3 million in 1991 and 1993. The automobile airbag manufacturer closed last year, displacing 85 workers.

[Geography and politics]

What do you get when you travel past Jackson/Clay/Laurel/Knox/Whitley counties in eastern Kentucky.

You get Democrat counties, that's what you get.

[Jerry G. Rose]

Clay County should be one of the wealthiest counties in the country when you consider the dollar values of the Timber and Coal that have been removed from that county. Something is wrong. JGR

[JH]

Clay County has come a long way. We are still a poor community. When the news people come to our county, why do they have to film and visit some of our poorest areas. Why didn't they film our new courthouse and new Justice Building? We have a beautiful elementary, middle, and high schools. Didn't see that on television. Sure are so very poor people all over Clay County. We are all doing the very best that we can with our income. Don't make us look stupid all the time. Show how far we have come and are still striving to make our town, community, county, and ourselves better.