[pepsi_junkie]

The first was from the television. Any discerning youngster could see that denigrating Southerners was the daily fare of the national news. Nothing very good was ever said about that corner of America. TV reporters were more polite then than they are now, but even back in the day, there was something both explicitly and implicitly New York–ish about the evening news. New York was where the networks lived.

In the 60s all of the top shows on TV were on CBS and they had a southern twang. 'Petticoat Junction', 'The Andy Griffith Show', 'Gomer Pyle USMC', 'The Beverly Hillbillies', 'Green Acres', you get the point.

Apparently the wife of the top CBS executive (in New York, of course) was embarrassed by that and she pressed him to make the network more hip. This resulted in the 'Rural Purge' where all the top shows were cut and replaced by more city life stuff. 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show', 'All in the Family', stuff like that.

Here's the difference between Fox News and CBS back in the day: Then, as now, an embarrassed wife might twist her husband into changing the entire format to aid in her social life but the CBS executives actually were able to provide new content that was new and had merit and CBS stayed on top. Fox News, on the other hand, is just turning itself into a clone of CNN. We already have a CNN to hate. They will lose the right and never gain the left.

Hope those parties are worth it.

[dfwgator]

I think the Rural Purge played a huge role in the deterioration of this country.

[MayflowerMadam]

Speaking of CNN and Fox, one of the chants at today’s march was, “Fox News sucks! Fox News sucks!”

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

I had heard about the purge at CBS.