Friends and compatriots,

Within an hour of our email action alert last Friday, the phones at the History Channel's main office were already beginning to ring off the hook. I spoke to one of the office personnel in Mr. Berning's office, and she was quite fatigued from the number of calls that had already been coming in about the History Channel's decision to pull the history segments paid for by the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. She tried frantically to find the head of their PR department to speak to me personally, as the situation had been set at their highest priority due to the number of calls that they had received. Apparently the head of their PR department had already left for an extended weekend and is set to return to work tomorrow, Tuesday, December 7.

What do we need you to do?

1. Please resume calling on Tuesday morning to BOTH the New York headquarters and the Atlanta sales office listed below.

2. Continue to forward the email below to every email list that you have and encourage them to do the same.

In addition to the two upcoming radio interviews that are scheduled, we have already received a substantial amount of newspaper coverage and more online reports than we could count this morning. Here are a few of the newspapers who have carried the story so far:

Augusta Chronicle

Savannah Morning News

New York Post

Florida Times Union (Jacksonville)

USA Today


Making a couple of phone calls each day is the least that we can do. We must demonstrate that we have the capability of flooding their offices with hundreds or thousands of calls if we wish to have the impact that we are seeking.

Will you do your part?


Sincerely,
Ray McBerry
 

HISTORY CHANNEL DISCRIMINATION

Friends & Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans,

As many of you have already heard by now, the 60-second history segments commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the War which have been produced for the Georgia Division of the SCV have been pulled from the air by the History Channel in Georgia.  This decision was made by Nancy R. Alpert, one of the many vice-presidents at A&E Television Networks, the parent company of the History Channel.  You can read her reasons in the press release sent out by the Georgia Division HERE.

The Georgia Division is still running the segments on three other national network channels in Georgia, in addition to the other radio and television stations involved in the statewide campaign, as part of the commemoration of the Sesquicentennial.  None of the other networks or stations have expressed any concern at all, and many have commented on the quality of content and presentation of the segments.  The 60-second segments may be viewed on the Georgia Division website at www.GeorgiaSCV.org.

Since our press release was sent out several days ago, we have been inundated by members and friends of the SCV who are interested in taking action.  As we have seen in other instances, if we allow this anti-Southern discrimination to go unchecked without response, it will only encourage others to do the same.

What we need you to do:

1. Forward this email to every individual and list that you know.

2. Make two phone calls every day, from now until we send out a call to stop; it will take five minutes or less.  If this is unsuccessful, we may send contact information for advertisers at the History Channel so that you can ask them to cancel their advertising; but please do not do that at this point.

    * Call Mr. Berning, vice-president of national sales at A&E by dialing

        212-210-1400, select prompt "1" then enter 2376464 #, then # again.

    When you reach the secretary, please say something similar to the following (we recommend using your own words):  "Hi, my name is ___ ; and I would like to file a complaint with Mr. Berning.  I would like to protest A&E and the History Channel's decision to pull the history segments paid for by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Atlanta which commemorate the Southern veterans who died in the War Between the States.  It is discrimination against Southerners.  I would like to ask for the reinstatement of the segments and the removal of Nancy Alpert who made the decision."

    If the secretary attempts to transfer you, it is our recommendation that you insist on finishing your statement to her and ask her to convey the message to Mr. Berning since he is in charge of sales for A&E.

    * Call A&E's Atlanta sales office using the same script, minus Mr. Berning's name. The direct number is 404.816.8880.

3. If you are not already receiving the press releases from us, please sign up to receive them so that we will be able to keep you up to date on the progress of this issue and the Sesquicentennial.  Click HERE to receive the press releases and updates.  

With your help, we can make a significant impact for the cause of our Southern heritage!

Sincerely,

Ray McBerry
PR Officer, Georgia Division
Sons of Confederate Veterans

Ray McBerry Enterprises is the public relations firm for the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.