CAPC’s Williams Says “No” to Comedy Show

We asked CAPC Executive Director Jim Williams what he thought about the invitation from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart asking the Mayor to be a guest along with a few local residents. Williams said, “We probably should decline.”

The CAPC promotes the City of Eureka Springs through tax moneys levied on restaurants and lodging. Commissioners are appointed by the Council but have had increasingly less influence on Executive Director Williams.

Eureka Springs is very much a tourism town. Because of the national economy, tourism has been down, according to local retail merchants. There has been a significant downturn in real estate affecting those selling vacation or second homes.

The Daily Show Is the Right Show

The Daily Show wants to feature a segment built around the American Family Association’s homophobic scare-film They’re Coming to Your Town. The film focuses on Eureka Springs as an example of what can happen when the “homosexual agenda” is pushed to the point of enacting a Domestic Partnership Registry, and Council “is taken over by homosexuals.” — Or so the scare-film says.

Williams said he thought we should decline because “the show is a comedy,” and they want to laugh at everyone.

He said his opinion might be different if the show were serious. Williams added that he does not believe as some people do that any publicity is good publicity. His philosophy, he said, “is to live and let live.”

Well-placed sources tell us that The Daily show would feature Eureka Springs as a “diverse friendly city that does not discriminate in any way,” while casting the American Family Association as “paranoid and ridiculous.”

That looks like a pretty good comedy show from here.

Guess a city with a $1M ad and promo budget doesn’t need $5M in free publicity.