Springsteen defends the Dixie Chicks

Yes.
This smacks of more than the audience making decisions for themselves on the basis of what appeals & what doesn't ... Spin doctors at work, shaping opinion.
I get chilly Cold War/Un-American activities/black-list feelings .... Not nice.

0 Replies

Lets give this Chicks-bashing a new dimension:

Who organised those anti Dixie Chicks rallies?

Radio KRMD owned by Cumulus Media. The protesters only had to be on the site. The radiostation organised the whole event. The CD came from the radiostation. The radiostation also got a tractor to run over the Chicks merchandise.

Another big organiser of those pro-troops rallies(like the people protesting this war are against our guys):Clear Channel Communications And who is the big Boss of this corporation? Tom Hicks And who is he? He was one of the biggest financial supporters of Bush running for president. He also was the president of Utimco(The University of Texas Investment Management Company) UTIMCO has proven itself to be caught in a web of tit-for-tat political favors, and ethically questionable appointments that can be traced back to both big Texas money and George W. Bush. Tom Hicks is also the man who bought the Texas Raiders from George W Bush, After Bush had build a stadion on the expenses of the taxpayers. Bush gained about 15 million $ and made 2400% profit from his original investement.

News Corporation: owned by Rupert Murdoch. One of its biggest TV stations is Fox News, lead by Roger «dirty but efficient» Ailes. This man was the Campaign Leader of Bush Sr back in 1988. Several family members of the Bush family,like cousin John Ellis, ,work for the same network.

Of course they are bashing the anti war protesters. They all eat out of the hand of the Bush family.

0 Replies

Be careful where you step, be careful where you stand?

"...an airport policeman told him he had to put down his sign ("No War for Oil") or leave.

" `You mean, it's the content of my sign?' I asked him," Mr. Bursey said. "He said, `Yes, sir, it's the content of your sign.' "
====

"Is it the content of my sign ...."

Answer from badly trained peace officer
"Yes sir, it the content of your sign."

NYTimes today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/international/worldspecial2/27PROT.html?th

0 Replies

So often, one icident puts you on to another, and then, gradually, a picture emerges.

Considering everything else with the DC - the awards and all - this does appear to be more of a concerted effort. Frolic, it's not only Roger Ailes. Rove had early training under Lee Atwater, as did many others. They have a woman there now, whose name escapes me, from biig-time advertising who is directing many shots, succeeding Charlotte Beers, who was responsible for many of the failed PR efforts. But it is a deliberate aim at the entertainment industry, because they influence so much of American awareness, and also, I suspect, because the republicans have had a hard time getting a foothold there.

To digress - latest stories are about recall of Governor Davis in CA, and replacing him with Schwartzenegger. It seems to me this would be frought, but the repubs have convinced themselves that Arnie is a very appealing popular figure whom they can sell. As I recall, there may be an early drug history with Arnie, so the play-out will be interesting.

Should be a book written on the love-hate relationship between the republicans and the entertainment industry.

0 Replies

You may be right, Butrflynet, but if you are a program manager for a station marketing to the country/western crowd, individual decisions are still a plausible answer.

0 Replies

There's a conspiracy theory for everything.
I hate country music, but I listen to the nutty, local talk show on a country station and the day after the Chicks' comment was reported, the station was deluged by angry callers. They aired plenty of calls, and talked about having nothing to compare to the amount of negative calls received in their ten year history.

It is obvious that the backlash against those women started grassroots. Stations got on the bandwagon for their own PR.

Same with the French boycott, or is there some guy who knew George, who owned a conglomerate, which in turn owned all the restaurants that dumped French products...

0 Replies

The thing is, the people who still wanted to hear the Cicks would not have called in. Since they still sell out and still sell plenty of CDs one might assume the angry callers to be a vocal minority.

0 Replies

Is there such a thing as an unvocal minority?

0 Replies

Yup, the Amish.

0 Replies

And Trappist Monks.

0 Replies

And those who are unable to speak (is there a better word than dumb?).

0 Replies

Mute?

0 Replies

Okay, okay! So I was wrong.

0 Replies

yes, the mute.

The people whose tongue the cat has.

0 Replies

Ballet dancers?

0 Replies

Trappist monks.

Pinpoint laser accuracy.

Two snaps up.
<snap> <snap>

0 Replies

http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=38249#

Quote:

DIXIE CHICKS STAR IN SENATE RADIO CONSOLIDATION HEARING
Recent Radio Ban Cited as Example of Excessive Media Power

July 08, 2003
QwikFIND ID: AAO83P
By Ira Teinowitz

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- During a Senate hearing on radio consolidation, senators grilled a radio industry executive about his decision to pull songs by the country band the Dixie Chicks from the air for a month.

Senators also heard comments from an advertising industry executive, John Mandel, co-CEO of media services agency MediaCom, who told the Senate Commerce Committee today that radio consolidation has dramatically pushed up ad prices far above levels that competitive markets would allow.

Sharp questions
The committee's chairman, John McCain, R-Ariz., sharply questioned Cumulus Media CEO Lewis W. Dickey Jr. if he felt his decision ban the Dixie Chicks from all of Cumulus' country music stations demonstrated the political danger present in having too few owners of the nation's media.

The country trio's lead singer, Natalie Maines, in a concert in England just prior to the start of the war in Iraq, told the crowd: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." The group is also from Texas. Her comments caused a furor among some country music fans, and radio stations organized boycotts. Ms. Maine's later issued an apology.

Mr. Dickey defended his decision, saying Cumulus had pulled the songs only on its country music stations, and that the decision had come as a result of a "hue and cry" from local listeners and requests for local programmers for direction.

'Total contradiction'
Sen. McCain said that while individual stations have the right to pull songs, the decision by Cumulus (as well as by another media company, Cox Communications) to pull songs chainwide from its stations was a "total contradiction" of statements made by media executives that they were serving local markets. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., suggested Mr. Dickey's decision smacked of Nazism and McCarthyism rather than of free speech.

Mr. Dickey later admitted he would not repeat the move in light of the committee's criticism and would let local stations make their own decisions.

Ad prices are higher
Meanwhile, Mr. Mandel told the committee that because of radio consolidation ad prices in Atlanta are 155% above what they should be, 30% higher in New York, 95% in Austin and 78% in Minneapolis.

Radio consolidation has brought "an extreme cost to advertisers" and could be a tremendous drag on the economy, he said.

Hispanic media
In other testimony today, U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., warned about media consolidation in the Hispanic market. He specifically pointed to the proposed merger between Univision and the Hispanic Broadcast Corp., warning that if the merger goes through "virtually all Latinos would see and hear their news and entertainment from a single source."

0 Replies

Thanks for posting this article, Butrfly. Very interesting...

By the way, nice hat! Very Happy

0 Replies

Music chosen by individual DJ's has pretty much disappeared from the airwaves, removing the variety of music available, hence the popularity of talk radio, which primarily spouts a conservative view, which is taking over the land... and on and on. Hmm... There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear. I'm sorry, it is clear - Clear Channel.

0 Replies

ONe of the things that's finally being noticed. My hope is that the pendulum doesn't take too long to swing back. However, I understand the Chick's are still selling in the stores.

0 Replies

Springsteen defends the Dixie Chicks

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know