Another member of management was on the phone for a long time with the Associated Press yesterday about this article. He was never able to get through to the writer but he did eventually get to speak to someone. I haven’t heard about the outcome yet.

At this point there isn’t much that can be done anyway. Even if a retraction is printed, it would be a small blurb on page 16 of some newspaper out there that nobody reads.

There ARE a lot of overweight people in this area of the country. It was one of the first things I noticed when I moved back here. And Huntington, West Virginia could very well be THE ‘fattest city’ in America. Nobody here is denying that. What they take issue with is the tone of the article. It was a gratuitous way for somebody to get a laugh. It was not professional and it was not kind.

Many local people have tried to reach this writer regarding his inaccuracies and his hatchet-job on the town but he refuses to respond. This article seems to have been written with a tone of smug glee that is usually reserved for articles in the Enquirer; not for items carried by the Associated Press.

I’m not sure why a supposedly legitimate writer would take such cheap shots, including listing the percentage of people in this area who have missing teeth. He could have handled this particular topic more tactfully and professionally yet he chose not to. He opted to go for the quick laugh about the stereotypical residents of West Virginia.

There is a reason why people have bad teeth; it’s because they have no dental insurance. And the reason they have no dental insurance is because there is extreme poverty here. This self-serving article is making a joke of poor, uneducated people. I can only guess that this article was written to appeal to those people out there who need to feel superior. Would you laugh at a handicapped person on the street? These people are handicapped by poverty.

My advice to readers is to take the high road; have compassion, not contempt, for people who are less fortunate than you.