Senator Slams MTV Show 'Buckwild' for "Shameful Behavior"

Another MTV reality show has caught criticism for its portrayal of young people.

Senator Joe Manchin, from West Virgina, urges MTV to cancel it's upcoming show, Buckwild, because of the way it highlights a wild bunch of kids from the rural foothills of the state. He said the show was "just wrong."

The AP Reports:

Set in the West Virginia capital of Charleston and nearby Sissonville, W.Va., "Buckwild" "is an authentic comedic series following an outrageous group of childhood friends from the rural foothills of West Virginia," according to the show's website. In a letter, Manchin asked MTV president Stephen K. Friedman "to reconsider airing this show."

"Instead of showcasing the beauty of our people and our state, you preyed on young people, coaxed them into displaying shameful behavior," Manchin wrote in the letter dated Dec. 7, "and now you are profiting from it." "This show plays to ugly, inaccurate stereotypes about the people of West Virginia," the letter said.

Alisa Bailey, president and CEO of the Charleston, W.Va., Convention and Visitors Bureau, called the show a setback to the economic efforts of her town and the state as a whole because it portrays West Virginia as a place unfit for doing business. "We don't have the same economic firepower as MTV," Bailey told ABCNews.com. "This can do real economic harm as the whole world tunes in and sees what I believe are untrue stereotypes in a quasi-reality show. It's going to be a real blow to us and we're frozen as to what to do."

Buckwild premiers Jan. 3, 2013 at 10 p.m. on MTV.