Yeah, saw that story today......too bad, I thought it was a dead issue, and that the Chickies would be left alone.
The Dixie Chicks
by Stan Conroy 110 Replies latest watchtower scandals
-
-
Azalo
the whole Dixie Chicks scandal was created by the media, mainly Clearchannel, which as has been mentioned is a very conservative company. Their concerts are still sold out months in advance, their record sales are at their highest. If anything the whole thing worked to their advantage.
-
Yerusalyim
Reborn,
Free speech is free speech a boycott is a boycott. It doesn't matter the reason behind the boycott. The PRINCIPLE is the same. Therefore, it is a fair comparison. If those in the civil rights movement formed boycotts and we applaud their efforts, then I say those who boycott the chicks also have that right. I don't buy Dixie Chicks stuff, but that's cuz I'm not a country fan. WERE I a country fan, I would boycott them, just as I boycott Amazon for the pedophile book they carried.
Censorship? What censorship. Seems to me the Chicks are still speaking out.
-
Princess
I just have a problem with the censorship and the one-sided bias which seems to be prevalent currently.
People are afraid to speak against Bush it seems.
The Dixie Chicks had every right to speak out against Bush. They just don't seem to think they should have to take any heat for what they said. Take a look at their peers in country music and the majority of their listening audience. Mostly patriotic bible thumpers who support the republican administration. What did they think was going to happen? It was incredibly stupid and they are just not getting that. To make matters worse, there seems to be an ongoing fued between Natalie Mains and Toby Keith who happens to be incredibly popular because of his strong support for the war and his Angry American hit song. He won Entertainer of the Year last night and Natalie Mains wore a t-shirt that read "FUTK". No wonder they were booed when their nomination was read.
The Dixie Chicks used their right to freedom of expression to state how they feel about the war, and they are subsequently censored on some radio stations who refuse to play their music because they stated an opinion that happens to go against the current Administration. Then they are labeled as unpatriotic and rallied against. They support the troops, just not the war or President Bush.
Rush Limbaugh criticizes Democrats and Bill Clinton every day for decades. He is labeled patriotic and encouraged for his comments.
Is there not a double-standard here? Let's be real.
A friend of mine is a DJ at Seattle's country radio station. They aren't playing the chicks because the listeners don't want to hear them anymore. They aren't being censored. The listeners dictate the music played at the stations, if the listening audience complains and quits listening, the stations quit playing the songs.
-
Reborn2002
Yeru says:
Censorship? What censorship.
Princess spews:
They aren't being censored.
Bald faced lies. You choose to ignore the facts when it does not support your propaganda. How about I point it out so that even a kindergarten child can understand?
For your perusal, I will submit an article which demonstrates disc jockeys being suspended from work for playing Dixie Chicks music.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/dixi-m09.shtml
Now, you say:
Censorship? What censorship?
and
They aren't being censored.
Let me quote a few notable comments in the article.
The station’s General Manager, Jerry Grant, declared in a media release justifying the reprisals against Moore and Singer that the Dixie Chicks were censored because the station had to be sensitive to its listening audience in a city with five military bases.
Banning the group’s music from the station’s playlist was a difficult decision, said Grant, “because how can you ignore the hottest group in country music?” He answered the rhetorical remark by emphasizing in his press release that “Colorado Springs is a military city.”
That the nationwide campaign against the Dixie Chicks—involving radio censorship of their music, CD burnings, and death threats against group members—is anything but a spontaneous popular response to Maines’ anti-Bush utterance is once again confirmed by the Colorado Springs episode. The fact that a town with numerous military bases was the scene of an extraordinary protest in support of the group reveals much about the state of popular opinion, including perhaps within the military.
Instrumental in the efforts to censor the Dixie Chicks has been the media conglomerate Clear Channel, a company with close ties to the Bush administration. The campaign also involves the extreme-right FreeRepublic.com web site and Cox Radio and Cumulus Broadcasting, two large radio broadcasters who dominate the country music radio scene. The CD-smashing rally in Louisiana by a 33,000-pound tractor was orchestrated by KRMD, part of Cumulus Media, which has just recently lifted its ban against the group’s music. The so-called ‘grassroots’ uproar against the trio is in fact a highly orchestrated phenomenon.
“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.”
Still gonna claim no censorship? Give me a break.
-
riz
Princess doesn't strike me as a person with an agenda.
In fact, I find her to be one of the more mild posters here. I have never seen her pushing any 'propaganda.'
Bald faced lies. You choose to ignore the facts when it does not support your propaganda.
That was an odd assertion, to say the least.
-
WildHorses
People still will attend their concerts, and buy their c/d's, but perhaps this was a good lesson to keep their yappers shut about politics.
Ok, let me ask you all this. Do we as americans, have a right to speak out against the president? Do we have the right to protest?
Also, how many protesters go out and protest without the intent of being heard? Do they also hope what they say is picked up by the media, so as to have their opinion heard?
It is the same thing with actors/singers or anyone else for that matter. They have just as much right to voice their opinion as anyone else. I believe those for Bush, during the war, if given the chance, would have also used the media to say so.
Just because they are famous does not mean they should shut up if we want them too. We do not own them and do not have the right to shut them just because we may not happen to like what they have to say.
-
TR
Simon,
What if you liked the dixie Chicks and then they said, "We're practicing pedophiles." Would you still support them? Listen to their music?
TR
-
Reborn2002
Making a statement which is a bald-faced lie when you KNOW it to be a lie is questionable.
One would not do so unless they had an agenda.
To quote Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, which supports the right of critics of the government to speak out:
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Now, back to Yeru.
Free speech is free speech a boycott is a boycott. It doesn't matter the reason behind the boycott. The PRINCIPLE is the same. Therefore, it is a fair comparison.
Hogwash. Free speech is not simply free speech, and a boycott is not simply a boycott. You know it, I know it, and anyone else reading this with a 2nd grade education knows it. Klu Klux Klan members gathering under the premise of free speech to promote racial division and hatred to boycott black music is the same as homosexuals gathering to encourage nonviolence towards their sexual orientation by boycotting something motivated by hate? Please. Because they are bot boycotts? Get real.
I was stating that you referencing the Montgomery Boycott and comparing it to the boycott of the Dixie Chicks is an unfair comparison. The African-American citizens who were fighting to earn basic freedoms versus country music singers who used their freedom of speech and were subsequently censored and boycotted for it? There is NO comparison. Anyone with a rational mind would side with the African-Americans boycotting 40 years ago to have basic human priviledges. You were attempting to invoke the emotion of the reader by comparing such a noble and stellar example to what is taking place today.
If those in the civil rights movement formed boycotts and we applaud their efforts, then I say those who boycott the chicks also have that right. I don't buy Dixie Chicks stuff, but that's cuz I'm not a country fan. WERE I a country fan, I would boycott them, just as I boycott Amazon for the pedophile book they carried.
Yes, they and you have the right to boycott. That is a guaranteed freedom as a United States citizen. The freedom of choice. However telling lies regarding what is happening today is not appropriate, and I called your bluff.
-
Princess
The station’s General Manager, Jerry Grant, declared in a media release justifying the reprisals against Moore and Singer that the Dixie Chicks were censored because the station had to be sensitive to its listening audience in a city with five military bases. He claimed that listeners wanted the music pulled until last week, when “the tide began to turn” in favor of the proscribed group.
Grant’s memo described the controversial event: “Monday morning, Singer and Moore, our morning co-hosts, took it upon themselves to lock the studio doors so that no one could enter, and commenced to play the Dixie Chicks back to back, continuously for six hours,
I stand by what I said earlier. Just because a DJ says it's censorship, doesn't make it so. It was a poor choice of words. What he calls censorship is really just a market reaction. Their listening audience is what they need to consider. The people don't want to hear the Dixie Chicks because they are offended by them. The article said they locked themselves in to take listener requests and then proceeded to play the chicks for six hours straight. Even the most die hard chicks fans wouldn't want to listen to them for six hours straight.
The Dixie Chicks play good music. I really like them and have for a long time. Now I'm totally turned off, not by what they said but how they have reacted to the whole situation. They are childish and rude and thumbing their noses at the people they have offended.
As to me having an agenda? Give me a break Reborn. What the hell are you talking about and why have you now resorted to name calling?
Just because they are famous does not mean they should shut up if we want them too. We do not own them and do not have the right to shut them just because we may not happen to like what they have to say.
I totally agree. They have as much a right as anyone. However, since they are famous and have a platform to stand on, they have to be able to take the heat for what they say. The Dixie Chicks could have handled this differently and they'd be playing their songs again on the radio by now.