American Colony: Meet the Hutterites

Sounds interesting on the surface, but within five minutes you realize this show is scripted. The Hutterites shown are acting, and are reading lines off a cue card -- very badly and awkwardly at that.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Jeff Collins, a schlock reality TV producer, used the National Geographic Channel, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's criminally convicted News Corp, and got an "in" with a former Hutterite whom a Hutterite colony trusted by flashing the stellar reputation of the unrelated National Geographic MAGAZINE, and thereby contracted the colony for $100,000 to produce a documentary about Hutterites. Once the ink was dry, the tables were quickly turned: Collins scrapped the documentary, switched to the "reality show" format, told the Hutterites they were too boring, and convinced several of the naive young teens to act out various (and increasingly outrageous and preposterous) scripted skits, which they filmed. The excitement of being on-camera and being in the spotlight led many young people to join in (remember, these are isolated people with little social life), and they were sitting ducks.

The level of preposterousness of the staged scripted scenarios was amped up to the point where: events were staged nearby and said to take place hundreds of miles away; fist-fights, heart attacks, and buildings burning down were blatantly fabricated and staged; teens were taken to an isolated spot in Canada and plied with alcohol under the promise of no cameras; a pregnancy scare was fabricated and staged; and on and on. And of course what was told to the young people versus what the snippets were edited to become was drastically different as well.

Well, you say, how did the adult Hutterites who participated get roped in? There are signed statements confirming that producer Jeff Collins threatened them with lawsuits if they did not do as they were told, since they had been paid.

The result is a patently fake, wooden, yet defamatory scripted "reality show" which not only is stupid, boring, and ridiculous, but which also grossly misrepresents the colony and the Hutterites, and has also created great conflict in the Hutterite community and shame for the colony that was filmed.

If you want the full details and facts: http://societymatters.org/hutterites

"Meet the Hutteries" television series is modern life. If we have jobs and protocols in life then we must behave in certain ways if we want to keep and not lose our job and even family connections!! For instance, if people use what some perceive as racist language they have lost their jobs in many cases across the country. People lose their job if they get arrested for any reason in some jobs such as education. It is part of the board of education policy for dismissal if arrested. A prominent news reporter was released when it was found he embellished a story. I felt that the show was not scripted any more than any other show of its kind because the Hutterites would object to someone else writing the script. Hutterites had to do it themselves or they would have stopped production. A search shows that the reason the show was stopped was the district elders began to object once they found the colony was doing a television series. I think it gives a huge insight into a somewhat and mostly cloistered culture that is adapting remarkably to modern life complete with using computers and cell phones while attending public school and college for some of them. Catholic monks are using computers today and have their own web sites. "Meet the Hutterites" is an inspiring farm and ranch style colony who follow Joseph Hutter's teachings and ways from the 16th century. That to me is amazing. Consider that it is true of all people in various ways. We have traditions which go back much farther than might be thought on the surface. Take celebrations like carnivals, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mardi Gras, Hannukkah and Passover and you quickly find elements from centuries past. Language and culture is steeped in a blend of the old and modern. Viewing the series "Meet the Hutterites" helped and inspired me greatly on how life plays out for them in everyday life. I loved the characters and began to look forward to seeing them again and again because I identified with them in my modern life. The program was a complete favorite with me.