Well...this is why, after offering my perceptions, as requested, I ended by admitting that I can't be a totally objective NOR can I understand AS a resident.
I am a bland WASP-type, mostly from Kansas, who has only 60 years of travel and thinking & reading & meeting people and 14 years of discussing 'stuff' on Mudcat to guide me.
That means that a question back at me, phrased "How about giving us the version of the Appalachian stereotype that you hold dear ..." is just a bit hard to answer. I don't hold ANY of them "dear"... (and I haven't started 'beating my wife').I merely recognize that there are stereotypes- of, as I noted, many areas and groups. One of my aims in life has been to combat and overcome the worst aspects of stereotypes. How does one do that? Well, the 1st step is to recognize that there ARE such. (Basic philosophy...can't really know 'goodness' without badness for comparison.)

... I see I am hesitating to refer to specific stereotypes, lest I be pegged as holding them. I do not do these discussions well in this medium, when I must try to include parenthetical qualifications and disclaimers in anticipation of 'touching a nerve', as I seem to have done just trying to make a reasoned reply. [Janie 'sorta' knows me, and I think knows that I DO try to be honest and clear. When I fail, it is useful to sit and trade clarifying remarks as we go....]

   It seemed so simple to just offer one quick viewpoint as to whether *I* saw the same "slights" and "tone" that Janie 'thought' she saw embedded in news stories. I said I didn't, but would not be surprised if those stories WERE slanted a bit, due to...all those reasons I mentioned.

Now, I play autoharp...and I play some Carter Family stuff, and have LPs of Gid Tanner and Ken & Nehriah Benfield and various folks from the South and of a number of musicians from Appalachia ...including W. Va. You can't hear and sing these songs without absorbing some of the feelings and values and culture and religion inherent in it. Are those 'stereotypes' or just 'reflections'?

Finally, was the only safe answer to Janie's question, "Yep...shore was slanted coverage, alright!"? Hmmmm? If I understood the point, she was ASKING because she wasn't sure.

(Janie...we are collecting quite a list of topics to hash out when we ain't singin' and eatin' and fightin' sleep, hmmm? *wry grin*)