Jewish World Review Feb. 28, 2003 / 26 Adar I, 5763

Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Leonard Pitts, Jr.
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

When TV picks at rural poor, viewers are left with even less

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | This "Beverly Hillbillies" thing just won't go away. And if you wonder what "thing" I'm referring to, well…

"Come and listen to my story about a guy named Les/the man in charge over there at CBS..."

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Anyway, Les Moonves is the CBS CEO. In August, his network announced plans to air something it called "The Real Beverly Hillbillies," a twist on the old sitcom about bumpkins from the Ozarks who struck oil, so they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly. Hills, that is. Etcetera, etcetera.

For the new show, a real, and really unsophisticated, family would be plucked from some isolated rural area and set up in a Beverly Hills mansion for the amusement of the American television audience. As one CBS executive put it, "Imagine the episode where they have to interview maids."

Many observers did imagine - and were appalled. This week, the controversy reached the U.S. Senate as Zell Miller, Democrat from Georgia, blasted CBS and Moonves in a speech. Which follows months of criticism from pundits like yours truly and newspaper ads from the Center for Rural Strategies, a Kentucky-based advocacy group.

Most of the objections revolve around the idea that the show is offensive to poor people in the South. But we should also find it offensive for a larger reason, about which more in a moment.

First, a couple of things CBS would want you to know at this point. One, that so-called fish-out-of-water comedies have been around forever. Two, that it's usually the aforementioned "fish" the audience winds up admiring. Think Detroit detective Axel Foley, the Eddie Murphy character who proved himself smarter and more resourceful than any Beverly Hills cop.

The problem is, CBS is not dealing with characters here, but with real, live human beings. Worse, human beings from a population that has not enjoyed the material and educational advantages others have, a population that has been mocked, caricatured and marginalized - sometimes cruelly - by the society at large. Now those same people are offered up for the rest of us to laugh at. We are supposed to find humor in the ways they are Not Like Us.

As if you and I were the standard to which they ought to aspire. Our lives the ones by which they ought to be measured.

The sheer gall of it is astonishing, of course. But there is more than gall here. There is meanness and contempt. And ultimately, as already noted, not just for rural Southerners.

I mean, there was a time we laughed at television. It is increasingly the case, however, that television laughs at us.

What else is it when Maury Povich holds up the results of a DNA test to settle an issue of paternity between some screaming young woman and man? When Jenny Jones or Sally Jessy Raphael trots out some 12-year-old with a potty mouth and a bad attitude? When people agree to date, have intercourse, marry or cheat for the camera? What else is this new show about?

We are invited to look in and laugh at the crazy things other people do, to shake our heads over the shallowness and vacancy of their minds and lives. It's psychological comfort food, something that allows you to feel smug and superior about your own affairs.

We feel a certain distance from -- and above -- those people on the screen. But I would submit that the distance is a delusion. That in encouraging us to ridicule the unschooled, the unsophisticated and the unfortunate, television doesn't just trivialize their lives. It coarsens ours.

The camera gets the last laugh.

Lord knows there are few things funnier than human foibles. Few things more aggravating than some stiff who takes him or herself too seriously.

But at some point, you have to decide whether your dignity is worth spending - or watching - a few demeaning moments in the spotlight. Sooner or later, you have to stand up for your own life.

All the sophisticated people seem to have forgotten that. Maybe the hillbillies have not

Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


Comment on JWR contributor Leonard Pitts, Jr.'s column by clicking here.

02/14/03: We've been through anxious times like these before
02/11/03: Virtual community failed "Ripper' is no surprise
02/07/03: 'The One' for the 'Get-Yours' generation
02/04/03: Depressing news from TV nation
01/31/03: Let's hear it for women with meat on their bones
01/21/03: Illinois governor may have saved us from ourselves
01/14/03: We must pay close attention as corners are cut and rights abridged in our names
01/10/03: This mother wouldn't let us ignore grisly ugliness of racism
12/17/02: Michael Jackson's disappearing act
12/06/02: After affirmative action, what next?
12/03/02: We deserve a break today from McDonald's lawsuits
11/19/02: On question of Megan's Law, information trumps other concerns
11/12/02: Winona, just say, 'I'm sorry'
11/08/02: Your local police, brought to you by Joe's Bar and Grill
11/05/02: A father, a son and an essay
10/29/02: Things like this don't happen
10/22/02: Real monsters look just like women and men
10/18/02: Snoop's new tune rings hollow
10/15/02: A reminder of life's random cruelty
10/08/02: He toils in the name of change because he can't just stand by
10/01/02: Sharpton, crossing swords with the white corporate dragon, needs to learn what the civil rights movement really was about
09/25/02: A skewed sense of compassion
09/18/02: On death and a pop-culture mindset
09/10/02: Inconvenience me, PLEASE!
09/06/02: Latest CBS joke isn't funny
09/03/02: A rewarding life as a working stiff
08/30/02: We infants in men's clothing
08/27/02: Sept. 11 - How much is too much?
08/23/02: Cut it out already, media!
08/20/02: Brace yourself for attacks of the stealth ads
08/16/02: Russia, please, pretty please let the rocker hitch a ride into space
08/12/02: Racial 'colorblindness' is silly
07/30/02: Oh, to be famous
07/19/02: In Pop-Music Thriller, Jacko Takes on Sony
07/09/02: The password is 'frustration'
06/25/02: My Head And Heart Are At Odds - I Can't Watch Video Of Pearl's Beheading
06/21/02: Your kid's going to pay for cheating --- eventually
06/18/02: Stuffy 'correctness' robs races of give and take
06/07/02: A gift of the Masai
06/04/02: Now what? Use your 9/11 pain to combat complacency
05/24/02: Has your life changed since 9/11?
05/19/02: New world disorder is nothing to smile about
05/14/02: White men can jump, so why do black kids come up short in the classroom?
05/03/02: Catholic Church should be ashamed for blaming abuse victims
04/19/02: A reminder of how small the world has become
04/16/02: 100 death-penalty mistakes and counting
04/12/02: Until all the bad guys wear black hats
04/10/02: Connecting with history with hope for future
04/08/02: Just me and the boys: A black father's road trip
03/26/02: It's time to give up fighting the good fight and join the masses
03/22/02: It's not the art, it's the artist who's troubling
03/19/02: Don't ask, don't tell when it comes to police work
03/15/02: Do we have an inalienable right to TV?
03/12/02: What will we learn about ourselves as war toll grows?
03/08/02: Marriage madness --- oh, please!
03/05/02: A risk free life
03/01/02: Pentagon's idea of lying to media was breathtaking' in its stupidity
02/16/02: Will the Afghans forgive the U.S. for the beating of innocents?
02/15/02: In search of manhood, some make a fatal decision
02/08/02: Time for blacks to give the same respect they demand
02/05/02: A question of character and "unlawful combatants"
01/31/02: There's only so much a parent can influence a child
01/29/02: Mike Tyson is incapable of embarrassment
01/25/02: Acts of patriotism or acts of desecration?
01/18/02: Waiting for tears in the rain at Ground Zero
01/15/02: A little cultural respect works both ways
01/11/02: Can blacks be racist?
01/07/02: What price for the priceless?
12/21/01: An intriguing study on race
12/18/01: To err is me
12/14/01: Admit it, folks, If you've ever been 16, you can probably relate to Walker
12/11/01: Blacks-on-blacks poll is a healthy project
12/07/01: The best defense against government excesses
12/05/01: Better hoist caution flag
12/03/01: Martin Luther Ka-CHING!
11/27/01: Beauty reflects an ugly truth
11/22/01: Another reason to be thankful
11/19/01: If only they knew our names
11/12/01: Watching a 'dying' man live
08/01/01: Should a man be put in jail for what he's thinking?
07/27/01: It's your responsibility to invade their privacy
07/20/01: Is optimism for fools?
07/17/01: Everybody should have a white man

© 2002, The Miami Herald