A performance by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra featuring John Schneider and Tom Wopat, who appeared in the 1979-85 series The Dukes of Hazzard was canceled after complaints that the series had "racist overtones," according to Ben Jones, who played Cooter on the show and later served two terms as a Georgia Congressman. "What could these politically correct vigilantes possibly be thinking?" Jones said in a statement, in which he called the cancellation "a dangerous affront to the rights of performing artists and their audiences." Jones particularly criticized the NAACP for endorsing the cancellation. "I'm a life member of the NAACP and proud of it," he said. "Denying an artist an opportunity to entertain an audience because of somebody's wrongheaded political viewpoint is just plain un-American. I have fought for equal rights all of my life, and that is why I am speaking out on this." Schneider and Wopat were to have headlined a PBS special by the Cincinnati Pops on July 14 titled "Patriotic Broadway."




16/03/2007