I’m sure many of you remember the Great Dixie Chicks Blacklisting Controversy of 2003, when Natalie Maines said she was ashamed the president was from Texas, and then Clear Channel made a top down decision to ban her band from the airwaves.
Well Christoher Fleeger sent me a DVD of his new movie, Protesting the Dixie Chicks and I thought it was great!
There’s a trailer available on the official website.
Another clip is up on YouTube, and Christopher promised that he would upload another clip about the FCC Radio Consolidation issues soon too.
Category Archives: Dixie Chicks Blacklisting
John Cougar Mellencamp Speaks Out
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This interview could have been better (the guy could have asked better questions and stopped trying to pigeon hole Cougar’s musical style — I’m referring to the “are you the Creedence of today” line of questioning on page 3).
But no matter, at least someone gave John a chance to speak!
Ain’t that America? Denounced as un-American after he blasted Bush on his 21st album, John Mellencamp talks about the rise of Fox News, pay-for-play, what’s wrong with the Rolling Stones and why most Republicans aren’t rich enough to be Republicans.
By Eric Boehlert for Salon.
Salon: Talk about people’s reaction to “To Washington.”
John: Initially I was surprised. My album wasn’t going to come out for a few months and I had the song
recorded so I put it up on my Web site and asked for people’s comments. And there were some mean
damn comments coming back.
Salon: How about today?
John: It’s changed. Now they’re almost totally in favor of the song. Because people are starting to
realize, “Now wait a minute, what really happened in Iraq?” I see the climate changing
tremendously. But when people hear those drums of war pounding, and Fox News is showing it on
television, people got pretty riled up. People were afraid, and when people are afraid they make
emotional decisions.
Salon: Did that include people in your hometown of Bloomington, Ind.?
John: When the song first came out I was in the car one day and we were driving to the airport and I had
my kids with me and a radio station was playing “To Washington” and having callers call in. Some
guy comes on and says, “I don’t know who I hate the most, John Mellencamp or Osama bin Laden.” My
kids heard that and my 9-year-old said, “Dad, are they talking about you? Why are people mad at
you?”
… Salon: Were there discussions about not including the song on your record?
John: I was asked not to put it on the record.
Where did it go from there?
John: I think the people who asked me knew what my response would be, but they felt they had to ask. They
were polite about it.
Salon: Did they say it just didn’t feel right, or the tone wasn’t right for the record?
John: No, it was more, “You’re asking for trouble, and look what happened to the Dixie Chicks, which was
based on just an offhand comment they made.” And my point to them was, “Look, I’m John Mellencamp,
I’ve been doing this 25 years. For anybody to say I’m un-American is laughable.”
Howard Dean On The FCC’s New Media Ownership Rules
This footage is from the “Democratic National Candidates Forum” organized by the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition that took place on June 22, 2003 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers in Chicago, IL.
Here’s the original question that was presented to the candidates (courtesy of Jesse Jackson).
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Howard Dean On The FCC’s New Media Ownership Rules
“…when the Dixie Chicks were kicked off the air for disagreeing with the President of the United States over the Iraq invasion, I suddenly realized that this was a corporation who was censoring our ability to get information on our airwaves.” — Howard Dean. |
Complete transcript of the above video clip:
Q: Governor Dean. The FCC made this decision. The market’s gonna react. Companies are going to be acquiring more outlets. What are you gonna try to do? Try to undo it?
Dean: Yup.
(applause)
Dean: Look, I’m not a big country music person. I like it alright. I don’t know much about the Dixie Chicks. But when the Dixie Chicks were kicked off the air for disagreeing with the President of the United States over the Iraq invasion, I suddenly realized that this was a corporation who was censoring our ability to get information on our airwaves. So, yeah. Deregulation has been a failure. We need to re-regulate the media. They’ve behaved irresponsibly, and when people behave irresponsibly, they need to have the privileges that we’re giving them using our airwaves taken away.
So yes. I would re-regulate the media. I would limit the ownership of stations in a particular market and limit the overall ownerships in the entire country. We made a mistake in deregulation. We need to re-regulate.
Bruce Springsteen Defends The Dixie Chicks
Bruce Springsteen has spoken out in support of the Dixie Chicks!
And he did it using his blog (of sorts):
Bruce On The Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves. To me, they’re terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American.
The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about – namely freedom. Right now, we are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home.
I don’t know what happens next, but I do want to add my voice to those who think that the Dixie Chicks are getting a raw deal, and an un-American one to boot. I send them my support.
Bruce Springsteen
The Truth About The Dixie Chicks Ban
1. Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.
2. Those making up such a government.
2. A state governed by a few persons.
Channels of Influence
By Paul Krugman for the NY Times.
Or perhaps the quid pro quo is more narrowly focused. Experienced Bushologists let out a collective “Aha!” when Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because the company’s top management has a history with George W. Bush. The vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks, whose name may be familiar to readers of this column. When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel’s chairman, Lowry Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed much of the university’s endowment under the management of companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties. In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire.
There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear, but a good guess is that we’re now seeing the next stage in the evolution of a new American oligarchy. As Jonathan Chait has written in The New Republic, in the Bush administration “government and business have melded into one big `us.’ ” On almost every aspect of domestic policy, business interests rule: “Scores of midlevel appointees . . . now oversee industries for which they once worked.” We should have realized that this is a two-way street: if politicians are busy doing favors for businesses that support them, why shouldn’t we expect businesses to reciprocate by doing favors for those politicians
South Carolina Government Attempts To Intimidate Dixie Chicks Into Giving A Free Concert For Troops (Huh?)
Is this for real? Is South Carolina trying to force the Dixie Chicks to show up for a free concert so they can be booed and hissed by their former military fans.
I’m shocked I tell you. Shocked. Surely this is unconstitutional.
Don’t do it girls! Start your tour from somewhere else, if need be. Sounds like they’re crazy in South Carolina anyway.
You could probably sell out here in San Francisco for a week straight.
We’ll stand behind you and your constitutional right to speak your mind!
(And you’re pretty good at playing them instruments too.)
(S.C. State) House Resolution H 3818
A HOUSE RESOLUTION
TO REQUEST THAT THE DIXIE CHICKS APOLOGIZE TO THE MILITARY FAMILIES IN THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE UNITED STATES FOR THE UNPATRIOTIC AND UNNECESSARY COMMENTS MADE BY THEIR LEAD SINGER BEFORE THEY BEGIN THEIR UNITED STATES TOUR ON MAY 1, 2003, IN GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, AND TO REQUEST THAT THEY PERFORM A FREE CONCERT FOR TROOPS AND MILITARY FAMILIES IN SOUTH CAROLINA AS AN EXPRESSION OF THEIR SINCERITY.
Whereas, the Dixie Chicks are a popular and influential country music group from Texas; and
Whereas, before a recent London concert, Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, said that she was ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas; and
Whereas, members of the United States Armed Forces are outraged at the anti-American sentiment expressed by the Dixie Chicks; and
Whereas, there is a large military presence in the State of South Carolina, whom the Dixie Chicks have offended by their comments; and
Whereas, before the Dixie Chicks kick off their United States tour in Greenville on May 1, 2003, the House of Representatives and the people of South Carolina request that Natalie Maines apologize and that the group perform a free concert for the South Carolina servicemen and women and their families.
My Mistake. Natalie Actually Did Apologize
How sad.
McCarthyism lives!. It worked then and it works now.
Statement from Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks
March 14, 2003
“As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect. We are currently in Europe and witnessing a huge anti-American sentiment as a result of the perceived rush to war. While war may remain a viable option, as a mother, I just want to see every possible alternative exhausted before children and American soldiers’ lives are lost. I love my country. I am a proud American.”
Remember To Request The New Beastie Boys, John Cougar Mellencamp and Dixie Chicks!
I just finished making my daily calls to my local radio stations to request the latest and greatest anti-war songs.
Remember these guys:
Beastie Boys – In A World Gone Mad
John Cougar Mellencamp – To Washington
Dixie Chicks – Traveling Soldier
Crux Of The Dixie Chicks Situation
This situation just goes to show that it was the Music Programming layer of the system, not the listener layer, that pulled the Dixie Chicks from station playlists over Natalie’s statements.
That’s the issue here: programmers took it upon themselves to censor the Chicks before listeners had a chance to say anything. That’s where the McCarthyism parallel kicks in. The Chicks got blacklisted by a few key people within a Monopolized Media: not by infuriated listeners.
Many thanks to Dale Carter, programming director at KFKF/Kansas City for rethinking the situation and speaking out on this important issue!
Country Radio Still Weighing Chicks Controversy
One major market programmer removed the Chicks from his station’s playlist but changed his mind after considering why Americans have fought previous wars. In a letter to listeners posted on the KFKF/Kansas City Web site, program director Dale Carter wrote, “Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are over there fighting for our rights — and one of those is our Constitutional right to express an unpopular opinion. The longer this has gone on, the more I had visions of censorship and McCarthyism. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I agree with the 80 percent of you who abhor what Natalie said in London. On the other hand, I believe in the Constitution.”
Dixie Chicks Stand By Their Standments
Dixie Chick Explains Bush Bash
“I feel the President is ignoring the opinions of many in the US and alienating the rest of the world.
“My comments were made in frustration and one of the privileges of being an American is you are free to voice your own point of view.”