A Country Music Controversy

ON DECEMBER 19, 2004, the Tennessean broke a story which made waves in the world of country music. The paper was contacted by Stephanie Hoffpauir, a member of the Chely Wright fan club, who claimed she had participated in a scheme to boost Wright’s single, “Bumper of My SUV,” to the top of the country charts. Hoffpauir, a 31 year-old music teacher from Lafayette, Louisiana, was, she claimed, compelled by a guilty conscience to expose a publicity campaign which she deemed “unethical.”