Eudy column: We’re all riled up over CNN portrayal

I was very happy with the turnout for the S.C. Republican primary. The voters cast their ballots in almost record numbers.
Because South Carolina had a significant impact in the process of picking a GOP candidate, news reporters from all over were here. A reporter from CNN, Moni Basu, wrote an article I found extremely offensive, not only to the people of Lancaster County, but also the city of Lancaster. She asked the question, “How are finance and faith going to play a role in how you will vote?”
She talked to several people in Charley’s Café in Lancaster and then decided to take it to another level and write about gloom and doom for this area. Her article included the statement, “Many of the old mill houses sit empty or worse: dilapidated and occupied. This is where workers, covered in white fuzz, returned home each day.”
Another comment from Basu’s article: “It’s a mix of Republican voters with Southern drawls so strong they might need subtitling.” One more comment: “The parking lot at the Dollar General is brimming with cars. So is the repo lot at the credit union.”
Basu was only a short block away from the new, state-of-the-art courthouse (price tag $32.4 million). It features artwork by renowned artist and Lancaster native Bob Doster, a 17-foot sculpture called “Windows through Time” weighing just under 3 tons. The historic old courthouse built by slaves that she mentions in her article was also designed by architect Robert Mills, who designed the Washington Monument, and has recently been completely renovated.
She also did not see the University of South Carolina Lancaster, with all the many students scurrying around trying to find parking places.
Yes, Spring Industries closed, but it was and never will be the end of Lancaster County or the city of Lancaster.
You have riled up the residents, Moni Basu, and please remember we are proud, progressive and far from pathetic.
The article has sparked a movement and it has inspired an uprising, just as it should. CNN, how dare you not look at the whole picture?

Editor’s note: This column originally appeared in the Fort Mill Times, where Pat Eudy is a regular columnist.