The "Problem" of outdoor media

I posted the following as a comment on Galen Greer's blog in response to a post titled Responsibility in Outdoor Media.  I originally saw Galen's post mentioned on Albert Rasch's site. 

I'll play devil's advocate on this one . . . . We don't have tv, so I don't watch these shows regularly. But I remember when they first came out (10-15 years ago?) I thought that they were a net positive for hunting. At the time, hunters were routinely being told to "cover their deer carcass up in the truck" and "don't wear camo in public." I believe that such advice simply drives hunting further underground and out of the public eye. So I was glad to see hunting shows on the outdoor channels--and moreover, I was glad to see the kill shots. Any attempt to mask over the kill would have been an unnecessary sanitation of what goes on in hunting.

Now, with that said, it may in fact be the case that the majority of hunters shown on these television programs are morons. Whooping it up at the kill, high fiving it, etc. As they say about such displays in football, when you get to the endzone you should act like you've been there before.

Does such behavior give the non-hunting public a skewed view of hunters? Perhaps. But perhaps not. I would like to see some social science research/evidence that demonstrates such an effect on public attitudes. I doubt it's there.

Compare the hunting shows with the cooking shows, e.g., "Hell's Kitchen" and the like. The cooks on those shows are all morons--every other word out of their mouths are expletives that are beeped out. Do these shows have much impact on the general public's view of people who cook? I doubt it.

Same with other shows--Project Runway is one my kids and wife watch. Again, morons who sew and the morons who direct them. Do I care if they don't speak well and can't seem to utter a sentence without swearing? not really.

So I don't know that the outdoor media issue is as big a problem as some of the "hunting intelligentsia" makes it out to be. A bigger problem is kids not going outdoors and increasing urbanization so kids can't walk out the door and hunt squirrels and rabbits after school.

anyway. I'm probably in the minority on this one. And perhaps I have a blindspot because I don't watch the outdoors channels all day. But I think there are probably other more important 'problems' facing hunters.

Still don't know how detrimental the sensationalistic hunting shows are to hunting.  Would love to see some research on this, or to be pointed in the direction of such research.