The Hick Hunt

“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate, and, yes, it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is nothing but wires and lights in a box.”

Ed Murrow, renowned CBS journalist

Off the radar of the Blog Universe is the issue of CBS’ proposed reality show, The Real Beverly Hillbillies. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, here it is in a nutshell… For the past few months, CBS has had scouts poking around the Deep South, Appalachia, and anywhere they can find a poor person with a funny accent. Their goal is to find an uneducated (seriously, that is expressly stated) family willing to trade their diginity for thousands of dollars and an opportunity to make fools of themselves in L.A. Thanks to the efforts of the Center for Rural Strategies, based in Whitesburg, Kentucky a grassroots resistance has surfaced. Opponents include filmmaker Michael Moore, Independent Television Service, Southern Poverty Law Center, Kentucky Foundation for Women, and several rural coalitions and alliances. The “reality” show idea pisses me off for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it hits close to home. Sarah is from Appalachia and we were married in Whitesburg. Incredibly, a friend of her family’s was even approached by a scout. The woman was in a grocery store parking lot and was stopped by two people “taking a survey.” After speaking with them for a few minutes, she was asked if she would be interested in relocating to Beverly Hills. I think her response was something along the lines of, “F–k off!” In addition, I can hardly believe the network would dare air a program so offensive. To me this goes way beyond trash like “Married by America,” “Joe Millionaire,” and the rest. It doesn’t make business sense to be so cruel to your audience–your customers. I suppose the media execs expected the stereotype of rural people, particlarly in Appalachia or the South, as indifferent and passive to be true. Now they are facing a backlash from outraged citizens, authors, scholars, and even congressional members Todd Strickland (Ohio) and Zell Miller (Georgia), both Democrats. The current situation is that Rural Strategies President Dee Davis met with CBS President Les Moonves February 11th in Los Angeles. CBS listened to a case against airing the show and were challenged to “examine the way it portrays rural people and communities in its other programming.” Strangely silent on the issue (to my knowledge) has been The Nation, Salon, Mother Jones, Adbusters, and other lefty zines and journals. This is odd because I can’t think of a more salient issue for them to champion. Here you have a mega-corporation ridiculing and lampooning working class/ blue collar men and women. After the Center for Rural Strategies placed a full page ad in The New York Times a few weeks ago, I don’t believe that these publications are unaware of CBS’ plans. I wonder why they aren’t coming to bat for these rural people…

February 25th, 2003