The show was about a series of murders that happened in that town. When the show is about murders and their subsequent coverups, there's only so high on the "portray us in a positive light scale" one can go.
I remember the case. And, as a KY resident, I watched part of the show.
City Confidential did a show on my KY town as well: the murder of Sheriff Sam Catron. They didn't paint Somerset in the best of lights either, concentrating on the drug trade and the older bootleggin' era. But, that was all part of Sam Catron's story. And, those "bad" items concerning Pikeville was all part of the story of those idiot kids and their killing spree.