Yes, it achieves the key goals of sound journalism -- in careful & transparent use of sources, efforts to track down the best sources, clear statements re/ important questions & implications, timely engagement with breaking stories. In addition, it does something that Wellington consistently does well. She is one of the few good journalists who has made 'coal' her beat in a holistic way. Rather than focus only on one dimension -- she integrates multiple dimensions -- the political economy of the coalfields, the emerging social movements, the new & diverse media & art, the policy questions re/ energy & coal industry. She can do this because she's built up over years, a strong network of sources, contacts -- and she's got the seasoned understanding of relevant regional players in Appalachian coalfields that she can quickly pull together opinion pieces marked by wise judgments & background information about past events & contestations -- showing good judgment that journalists new to the place & topic cannot muster, especially under the short deadlines required to keep the news timely & relevant to breaking developments. She is particularly good, therefore, in critiquing national media coverage of coal issues -- able to track covert distortions caused by special interests behind the scene. This tendency for national media to be captured by highly politicized & powerful forces is particularly problematic when it's public television. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 specifically calls for "programs of high quality, diversity, creativity, excellence, and innovation, which are obtained from diverse sources, will be made available to public telecommunications entities, with strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature;" -- yet one can think of almost no full length programs which have engaged the regional impacts of contemporary mining in Appalachia -- despite the central importance of these questions in an age of climate change, energy crises & the new data on regional impacts on land & people.