Sunday, February 27, 2022

Dear NPR, Say it with me: Harris Wade lives in a food desert. Best, Retiring Guy

 

Botched reporting.  This is a social justice not a human interest story.

York, Alabama, is located in Sumter County, where the population has decreased 62% since its 1900 peak.  Currently 29.2% of its residents live in poverty, twice the state average.  The population is 71.4% African-American, compared to 26.8% statewide.



Missing in action
As a cross country trucker, Harris Wade could live just about anywhere. He chose York, Alabama, a town of 2,500 near the Mississippi border. He says it's quiet, hardly has any crime and is a welcoming place where "people know each other." 
He does have one big complaint – York doesn't have a grocery store. Luckily, there's a Dollar General and Family Dollar so he doesn't have to drive 10 miles for a gallon of milk. 
But this week the Family Dollar in York has been shuttered, along with 403 of the company's other stores across six Southern and Midwestern states.


 NPR can learn a lesson from local news reporting.

ABC24, Memphis (2/25/2022)

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