Warner Bros. to stop licensing Dukes of Hazzard goods with Confederate flag

Warner Bros. is lowering the flag on Dukes of Hazzard products that feature the Confederate flag in light of last week's massacre in South Carolina — namely the show's iconic '69 Dodge Charger, known as General Lee.

The consumer products branch of the American entertainment company announced Wednesday that it had "elected to cease the licensing of these product categories," effectively stopping the one licensee that produces replicas of the bright orange hot rod, which bears the flag on its roof.

The mass murder of nine black church members in Charleston, S.C. last week has fuelled fresh debate over the meaning of the Confederate flag and whether its image should be displayed in public. 

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Major retailers, such as Walmart, e-Bay, Amazon, Target and Sears, have already decided to pull Confederate merchandise from their stores and online sites.

Hazzard star defends the flag

Despite the backlash, Dukes of Hazzard star, Ben Jones, says he won't stop selling Confederate flagged goods at his Hazzard-themed stores.

Jones, who played Cooter in the popular Georgia-set series, owns three "Cooter's Place" stores in Virginia and Tennessee that sell Confederate flags and other items celebrating the fictional Hazzard County from his show.

"We're not changing anything in stores. There's no reason to change anything," Jones told The Associated Press. "We despise racism."

He added: "It's not a hateful symbol, and we despise that it's being used by bigots and hate groups."

Jones, who represented Georgia in Congress as a Democrat from 1989 to 1993, insisted that his politics have always been "about equal rights for everybody."

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In a Facebook post on the page for his store late Tuesday, Jones called the flag a symbol of the spirit of independence.

"That flag on top of the General Lee made a statement that the values of the rural South were the values of courage and family and good times," it reads.

"We are the same good people today that we were last week and last year and we are not going to be shamed into turning our backs on our heritage," he wrote.