Prickly Peacock Nixes Chicks

Barbara Kopple's new documentary, Shut up and Sing, chronicles the hostile and sometimes threatening conduct directed towards the Dixie Chicks after one of the group's members criticized the Commander-in-Chief, President George W. Bush, during a 2003 concert. Lead singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed that the president is from Texas, her home state.

The documentary is being distributed by Harvey Weinstein's film company. According to the Weinstein Co., in rejecting the promotional spots for broadcast NBC's commercial clearance department said in writing:

"[NBC] cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush."

The national spot shows a clip of Bush authorizing troops to fight in Iraq, then cuts to a clip of Maines' comment. Next is a clip of the president saying publicly that the Dixie Chicks shouldn't have their feelings hurt if people don't want to buy their records anymore. The final frame shows Maines saying that Bush is a "real dumb (bleep)."

"It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America," Harvey Weinstein said in a statement. "The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is profoundly un-American."

Ralph G. Neas, president of the nonpartisan People For the American Way, which advocates free speech, strongly criticized the reported NBC decision.

“If these reports are true, it would be astonishing for NBC to censor criticism of President Bush less than two weeks before the election,” Neas said. “This is a film about censorship, and now it sounds as though it’s being censored.”

Funny, but the networks don't seem have a problem with racist or homophobic ads, but when ever the ads are critical of Bush, or worse, promoting inclusive religions, suddenly they're not fit for television. The irony of course is that in Russia, Vladimir Putin has to threaten and kill reporters in order to get them to do his bidding. In America, folks like NBC and ABC [Path to 9/11] don't even need to be threatened in order to lose any sense of journalistic credibility.

The major media have gone conservative because they think that's where the money is. Come November 7th a Democratic House of Representative needs to take a long and hard look at media consolidation, and more importantly, media bias and whether the large networks have essentially been bought off by the Republicans. The Fairness Doctrine went away a long time ago, and as a result, whether through coercion or wooing, the networks have gone Republican.

Here's the ad that NBC found offensive. You decide, then dial 212-664-4444 to be connected with the NBC switchboard.