I knew nothing about “Swingtown,” which Wikipedia tells me is a CBS TV series about the supposedly sexually liberating 1970s, until I started receiving a fearsome Astroturf campaign against the show. (By Astroturf, I mean a faux grassroots campaign of mass-produced identical letters generated by a Right Wing factory, probably Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association.)
For example:
Dear Arkansas Times:
I am offended by the content of the CBS program “Swingtown.” The offensive content clearly violates our local community standards and does not reflect your license obligation “to serve the public interest.”
I urge you to refuse to air future episodes of “Swingtown.”
I also ask you to place a copy of my complaint in your files according to FCC regulations.
Sincerely,
Wayne & Betty Smith
Sparkman
If it’s as bad as the letter writers suggest, I guess I better check it out. Since they’ve sent a letter for inclusion in the Times’ permanent record, I thought the least I could do was post a sample clip to justify it.
Readers? Your reviews?