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RURAL REALITY vs. REALITY TV:
ANATOMY OF A PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

Public figures join the debate

What CBS and CEO Moonves propose to do with this cracker comedy is bigotry, pure and simple. Bigotry for big bucks. They will deny it. They will say it is just harmless humor. But they know better.

U.S. Senator Zell Miller, D-Georgia
Senate floor, February 25, 2003

I suspect such a show would reveal less about the unlucky family and more about the moral and creative bankruptcy of the once-respected CBS. What's next? Live hit-and-run coverage? A show called "Bad News in the Emergency Room?" Or how about a show named "We Found Something Troubling on Your CAT Scan."

U.S. Senator Kit Bond, R-Missouri
Letter of support to Rural Strategies, March 5, 2003

Early in the campaign Rural Strategies began quietly communicating with members of Congress and governors to educate them about the proposed show. On February 25, 2003, Senator Zell Miller, a Democrat from Georgia, criticized "The Real Beverly Hillbillies" from the floor of the U.S. Senate. The next week Republicans Sam Brownback from Kansas and Kit Bond from Missouri wrote letters asking CBS to drop plans for "The Real Beverly Hillbillies."

On the House side, Kentucky Republican Harold Rogers generated bipartisan support from 44 members, who signed a letter to Moonves. Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas joined the campaign, and the legislatures of Tennessee and Louisiana began considering resolutions voicing objections to the show.

Rural Strategies has been careful to position its opposition to CBS beyond partisan politics. Some evidence of the success of this approach can be seen in the wide range of individuals who have sounded off on the issue: from documentary filmmaker Michael Moore on one hand to Paul Weyrich, founder of the Heritage Foundation, on the other.

NEXT: Next steps