Say what you will about KXAS-Channel 5's obsession with the violent and the seedy, the station's certainly getting plenty of pub for airing Friday night the disturbing story about the 2- and 5-year-old boys in Watauga smoking dope with their uncles, who were arrested initially as suspects in various robberies. Indeed, far as we can tell KXAS broke the story using a videotape seized by Fort Worth police; The Dallas Morning News got on it only after it was "seen across the nation in news reports." By now, it's become something of a national sensation: It's gotten play on CNN and ABC News, been the subject of several Associated Press stories and, of course, has landed on YouTube.
Perhaps now would be a good time to send you back to this posting concerning the recent release of Children's Medical Center and the Coalition for North Texas Children's biennial quality-of-life report on the nearly 700,000 children living in Dallas County. (We know, Watauga's in Tarrant County.) Titled Beyond ABC: Growing Up in Dallas County is a compelling and troubling read full of what Children's calls some "startling findings" concerning the well-being of North Texas children. Two weeks ago Dr. Rashmin Savani, director of Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and chief of Neonatology-Perinatology at Children's, said that "as providers and as citizens of Dallas County...we must do better for our children." Uh, yeah. That sounds about right. --Robert Wilonsky
From KXAS-Channel 5, March 2
