By way of follow up, here's the note I sent my newsroom:
All - I was off for most of our reporting on the Amish couple charged with neglecting their child, and I have an issue with part of what we did with it.
To wit, on our web site we wrote: "The problem is that Amish culture sees medical treatment and hospitals as against religious beliefs."
I'm guessing we got that from our air copy.
While it may be true for this particular couple (I don't know) or for some group of Amish (I don't know) it is a bridge too far to say Amish in general see medical treatment And hospitals as 'against religious beliefs.'
A simple check of the Googles reveals lots of reliable information on this topic, most of which boils down to - Amish tend to be careful consumers of modern medicine. There are no absolute prohibitions against medicine or medical treatment or hospitals.
Methinks this is a case of - we don't know much about these people so we made it real, real simple. Unfortunately, we made it too simple, missed the nuance and haven't done the story justice (so far).
Thanks,
s.