Updates Press release The Issue Links

(Help stop intolerance in America. Join authors Sharyn McCrumb, Homer Hickam, and Scott Nicholson in protesting "The Real Beverly Hillbillies." All copies of this petition will be collected by the Appalachian Consortium and forwarded to CBS. Click here to download a copy of the petition as an MS Word Doc or simply copy the text below and paste it into your word processing program. To have a copy emailed in a different format, make the request to nixhillbillies@yahoo.com.)

NIX THE HILLBILLIES

Dear CBS President Leslie Moonves and Viacom President Mel Karmazin:

We, the undersigned, wish to voice our deep objections to the planned CBS show "The Real Beverly Hillbillies." We find the concept offensive not only to people of the Appalachian region, but also to Southerners and to any American who is impoverished or lives in a rural area. All of us are made poorer when cruel and erroneous stereotypes receive the blessing of mass media.

Substitute any other ethnic or cultural slur in the title for "hillbillies" and see if such an insensitive show would ever appear on national television. CBS is publicly licensed and operates on airwaves that belong to the American public. We expect more from an organization whose messages go a long way toward forming and defining people’s perceptions of a region they may know little about. We ask that you cancel the show immediately. Thank you for your attention.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Send complete page of signatures to: The Appalachian Consortium, P.O. Box 32017, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608