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Gordon's Republic

Whistle Dixie

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NBC has banned spots promoting the documentary about the Dixie Chicks slating President Bush.
The major US TV network, owned by General Electric, said the ban was part of its policy of barring ads that dealt with "public controversy".

The documentary, 'Shut Up & Sing', has also been banned by the new CW network, created out of the Warner/UPN merger.

The film documents the incident in London back in March 2003 when the Dixie Chicks' said they were "ashamed" to come from the same state as President George W. Bush. That's harsh on the Lone Star state.

Ironically, Bush doesn't even come from Texas. The whole thing is a myth he comes from Connecticut. He is a god to honest Connecticut Yankee. He tried to get into Texas State to do Law, but they wouldn't take him. He went to Harvard instead...wonder how he got in there? Later he became Texas governor and that ranch he's always pictured hanging around? He bought it five minutes before he entered the Whitehouse. He's about as cowboy as I am.

'Shut Up & Sing', directed by Cecilia Peck and Oscar winner Barbara Kopple, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the backlash sparked by Maines' anti-Bush outburst in 2003.

Maines later said she was sorry for "disrespecting the office of the president" but fanned flames anew when she retracted her apology in a Time magazine interview this year, saying: "I don't feel he is owned any respect whatsoever".

The banned ad features the moment when lead singer Natalie Maines opened her mouth and got the whole "ashamed" band wagon rolling.

If it hadn't have been for her anti war remarks, and the subsequent banning of their music by conservative country music stations, they would have probably quietly slipped away as their sub Shania Twain country pop career ran its course.

It isn't as if their subsequent post 2003 career has been one where they penned some great 'Born in the USA' type anti war songs. They haven't.

There have been some of these, but they have come from people of substance, such as Willie Nelson who penned one for Christmas 2004.

Their career might be sustained for another ten minutes with this latest controversy as the film's distributor, the Weinstein Company says it's looking at "exploring taking legal action" to fight this political censorship by NBC and CW.

And it probably is a case of political censorship, no doubt about it, but Harvey Weinstein is over egging a little with his statement about "a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech".

Mmm, courageous entertainers who are just out for a buck like everyone else, more like, including the likes of Harvey Weinstein who is renowned for aggressive marketing tactics. Another cheap publicity ploy? Probably.

Ironic bit nunmber two: this is the same network that for seven years gave us the 'West Wing', possibly one of the best shows ever written, that year in and year out detail the life of the best democratic liberal president that America never had.

Published Oct 28 2006, 03:15 PM by Gordon Macmillan

Filed under: Dixie Chicks, George W Bush, NBC, West Wing

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