Senator decries CBS as ‘ethics-free zone’
U.S. Senator Zell Miller has taken the debate over “The Real Beverly Hillbillies” to the floor of the U.S. Senate.
In a speech before the Senate February 25, the senator from Georgia called the
proposed show a bad joke at the expense of hardworking rural Americans. He said
he doubted CBS Television’s President Leslie Moonves would dare try such a
spoof featuring an African American or Latino family.
"What CBS and CEO [Leslie] Moonves propose to do with this cracker comedy is
bigotry pure and simple. Bigotry for big bucks,” he said.
Senator Miller called CBS President Leslie Moonves "a man who obviously
believes that network television is an ethics-free zone and that it's
acceptable for big profits to always come ahead of good taste.
"I don't know this man but it seems that he is a person who cares little for
human dignity and believes that television has no social responsibility."
According to the Washington Post, a CBS spokesperson called Miller's comments
about the network and its president, "unwarranted, unsubstantiated and an
attempt to cast a stone at the biggest possible target in order to get some
attention."
Senator Miller said the response from CBS was predictable.
"When a dog gets hit it always hollers and runs up under the porch. Mr. Moonves
knows very well that he has had his suits from CBS going all over the hills and
hollers of the Southern mountains looking for that overdrawn stereotype that
they have in mind."
On the House side of Congress, Representative Ted Strickland of Ohio has
criticized the proposed reality show as potentially harmful to the economic
development of rural areas.
Read Senator Miller's full remarks.
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