Wednesday, April 3, 2013

DSORe POLL S814

Results for POLL S813
Do you favor removing the woodchuck from Wisconsin’s protected species list and designating it as a game animal with an annual hunting season?
Poll Results S813, s814
Comments [1]

INSTANT SURVEY VOTE ON - POLL s814
Do you think the TV reality show “Duck Dynasty” on the A&E Network portrays hunters in a bad light?
Take the POLL: VOTE!
Duck Dynasty - good or bad for hunting ... ???

PollPic, s814
The Question: "Do you think the TV reality show “Duck Dynasty” on the A&E Network portrays hunters in a bad light?"

WHAT do YOU think of this.

VOTE YOUR OPINION
illustration c. A&E Network © 2013

TV series sets hunting back 50 years

In a recent issue of Ohio Outdoor News, contributor Chip Gross wrote this commentary for the Opinion Page:

By Chip Gross
It’s the number one most popular program of all time on the TV network A&E. If you haven’t yet seen it, you either don’t own a TV set or you’re smarter than I am.
The show is based around Louisiana’s Robertson family who, over a number of years, has built a very successful outdoors business under the guidance of the family patriarch, Phil Robertson, better known as the Duck Commander. The Robertsons manufacture quality duck calls and duck decoys, and also produce waterfowl-hunting videos.
When the program was first scheduled to premier a year or so ago, I was looking forward to watching it, thinking: Finally, an outdoors-oriented TV show has hit the mainstream media, that’s great! I was expecting something along the lines of American Pickers or Pawn Stars, where successful, legitimate businesses are highlighted and viewers get to take an entertaining look behind the scenes.
Instead, what we see during each half-hour episode are contrived story lines – if any at all – and outdoorsmen acting like simple-minded buffoons. In my opinion, Duck Dynasty is tarnishing the perceived image of outdoorsmen (and outdoorswomen) with the general public, setting that image back at least half a century.
It may be a generational thing. I’m now 61 years old, and have been a serious hunter and angler all my life. I know younger outdoorsmen – and some younger people who don’t hunt or fish at all – who think Duck Dynasty is an absolute hoot. They can’t get enough of the antics of Phil, his two sons Willie and Jase, Phil’s brother Uncle Si, and their wives. The show seems to have developed an almost cult following with younger viewers, no doubt to the delight of the A&E Network.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe for a minute that the Robertsons are ignorant people who simply don’t know what they’re doing. Quite to the contrary. Willie Robertson, for instance, holds a business degree and is credited with taking Duck Commander from a basement business to employing not only family members but also many in their small town.
What I am saying is that in allowing A&E to portray them as they have, the Robertsons have sold out, trading the stereotypical good ‘ol boy image of outdoorsmen for a quick buck – likely millions of bucks – and taking the rest of us down with them. I’m sure the Robertsons are laughing all the way to the bank.
Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame, Robertsons, because I can guarantee you it won’t last. The sad part is that you are tainting the image of all sportsmen and women as you do so, and that worn, inaccurate picture of most hunters and anglers will remain in the minds of millions of non-hunting Americans long after Duck Dynasty is off the air.
And for that I say shame on you, Robertsons. Shame on you.
Chip Gross, of Fredericktown, is a contributing writer for Ohio Outdoor News.
Taping of the fourth season of "Duck Dynasty" has been delayed because the Robertson family is trying to negotiate a substantial pay increase with the network and producers of the show.    READ MORE HERE:

Results for POLL S814