Media – The Good and the Bad

One reason why a lot of folks are negative about “the media” is the way it sees us, the way it represents is, the way it makes us look. Say you just dropped in from another planet and looked at the movies and TV, you might easily get the idea that hillbillies are evil, stupid and just generally genetic defective losers that should be laughed at, if not feared.

When you take a closer look, though, it’s clear that even an awful lot of urbanites, including those that have to do with writing and producing media content, are not that far from country roots and an affection and respect for their past. Sure, you got the rural psychos in the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and the like. But you also have the good-hearted characters in shows like the “Beverly Hillbillies” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”

We started off complaining about the negatives in our pages like Coasties and Media-Bad, but we thought we should also tip our hat to a few positive representations of hillbillies in our Media-Good page.

Much of movies and TV content might often present cartoonish simplifications of what heartland America is all about and suffer from clueless misconceptions of who heartlanders are. But sometimes, to be fair, they hit a heat-warming nail on the head.

Examples of both abound. We’ve already noted a few, but if anybody would like to add to a more complete list, feel free to chime in on our comments box down below.