Yeah, I wasn't very pleased with Clinton on that count. I didn't even know about the 1996 act until about 1998 when all the independent stations I liked started to get bought up left and right by monopoly music. Clinton did his share of favors for monopoly corporations too. It would take some real campaign finance reform to solve a lot of those problems of corporations writing our laws in exchange for getting people reelected (over a year after the Senate subpoenaed Cheney for the records on how Enron shaped the Energy Bill and still nothing - one thing I will say to Clinton's credit is that whether or not I agreed with his policy decisions, he certainly didn't brand absolutely every public deliberation he ever made a state secret the way Bush, Cheney and Ashcroft do).

So why does anyone want a handful of big corporations to choose what they do and don't get to listen to on the radio? What will get airplay is what drives which CDs will get produced.

What recording companies will produce CDs that ClearChannel Communications won't play on 82% of all the popular music stations? (or those owned by Saga). If you didn't catch what I said earlier, I'm not concerned about the Dixie Chicks and the Madonnas of the world who already have platinum albums under their belts. What it means is that any artists who are breaking into the business since 1997 and 1998 don't have much opportunity to ever get CDs produced by major labels if they won't get any airtime.

If ClearChannel and Saga and Wicks owned just half the popular music stations in this country we'd still have a real choice. Reality is - more and more major cities have no choice but monopoly music radio.

I do not orignally come from America --- but I can tell you that as radio goes the choice on American radio is absolutely dreadful(Actually No choice). Clearchannel pump out a constant diet of either christian rock bands like creed and other assorted poor versions of Mettalica. It's Facist Musak for a Facist People. By effectively suppressing music by not playing 'Artists that do not fit the format'(ie. do not sound like every other overproduced mediocrity, or like the Dixie Chicks have a moral sense of right and wrong).
If you do not know an artist exists (like by hearing a song on the radio) --- then the only other way you learn about them is by having them shoved down your throat by some fasist corporate child killer (thats anyone who supports the invasion of Iraq --- have you seen the photos of the dead children -- so you can pay a few cents less on gas for your SUV). The minority that controls the American media want you to consume their crap and want no input from the public, freedom of expression is their enemy.

As a former employee of Time Warner I can tell you they have plans for you. If your a white middle class fat prat driving your SUV with a baseball cap and listening to Heavy Metal lite --- may you choke, you greedy blood soaked child killing neo-fat-nazi.

Dixie Chicks forever

Edited by author 04-05-2003 11:18 AM
FreedomMusak Whoah! anybody who wants to see innocent people die in *any* country is no better than terrorists in my book. You've already lost all my respect.

Just as people don't know an artist exists unless the radio plays it, people don't know all the ways that Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz gave false and misleading information to the American people unless the newspapers carry it on p. 1. Most of the articles that really get to the heart of the matter - how the CIA *and* the FBI *and* the British military intelligence (MI-5) all disagreed with the Bush administration and said Iraq had no links to al Qaeda were buried on p. 9 of newspapers. And never got on TV or radio at all. Ditto for the CIA reports on how they believe Saddam has chemical weapons left from before 1991 - but *at most* only enough to attack a few hundred troops on the battleground.

The subject of this weblog is the ClearChannel's boycott of the Dixie chicks and freedom of expression in popular music. If anyone would like to receive links to authoritative articles and reports (including Pentagon and CIA reports that contradict President Bush's stance) send an email to democracyNotEmpire<deletethis>@hotmail.com and I'll forward you additional information.

As for FreedomMusak - and anyone else who spouts violence at innocent people either in Iraq or America - once you surrender to hate you have already lost.

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Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could easily defeat us.
William O. Douglas, US Supreme Court Justice 1939-1975
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Is good Natty Maynes tell truth.

Is good Natty Maynes tell truth. Great Satan Bush want all oil, run the world. Natty good Moslem wife, husband keep her straight. As quran say "women are your fields, enter them often". Should give Natty Greenspan's job.

Get real, Mohamed. It's Natalie, and she's married in name alone. Ain't no Texas woman going to convert to Mohamadism, and she certainly not going to put out to one.

Edited by author 09-11-2003 05:13 AM
I'm british, and you, democracynotempire, are exactly the kind of person freedommusak is talking about, the type of fat american prat who would vote for an incompetent baboon like Bush. I don't know if you did and I don't care, because it's the attitude of americans that pisses the rest of the world off. That's right, the rest of the world, not just your scapegoats, Iraq, Syria, Iran and the others in the club of "the axis of evil". axis of evil, sounds like something out of a comic. Bush is an embarrassment, and the worst thing is that you don't notice. You're just like him, which goes to show that your country is populated by ignorant, over-patriotic, wasteful and arrogant morons. Hopefully the small minority of people with minds of their own, like the dixie chicks, will change things. But I doubt it, your country and the mentality of americans are already too twisted.

So Charles croaked Diana? What does your love Natalie say to that? It isn't royals are inbred, its that all Brits are inbred. If it wasn't for advanced societies, you would all be hearding sheep and snorting mistletoe.

I heard from a band member that the Dixie Chicks sing "Traveling Soldier" about Osama Bin Laden. This is in very poor taste and probably some scheme from the Kerry Campaign. They should apologise and turn over all profits from the song to charity.

So what do the nazi chicks have to say now that their boy lost to Bush!!!!!!

Regarding Timmy Thompson response from 9-10-03 (#69)...hope this isn't the same Timmy Thompson who lives in Denton, TX trying to express a responsible opinion; if only the public was aware of this person's disregard of moral and legal obligations, any opinion expressed by him would be flushed down the drain with the wastewater...you know the type: can talk the talk, but never walks the walk....

i agree with mohamed and as for you all fat redneck texans its ISLAM not mohamedisum

Hello. I am Timmy Thompson. I the real TimmyThompson.com