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Not even the Dixie Chicks can say whatever they want(McCain goes to bat for fat mouthed trio)
Gwinnett Daily Post ^ | July 11, 2003 | By Jacob Sullum

Posted on 07/13/2003 4:29:56 PM PDT by South40

For those who wondered how Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., could sponsor a “campaign finance reform” law that restricts political speech, the answer became clear during a hearing he chaired the other day: McCain has never read the First Amendment. How else to explain the senator’s contention that radio stations violate the First Amendment when they decline to play the music of performers who offend their listeners? According to McCain, this threat to freedom of speech is a ‘‘strong argument’’ for limiting “media concentration” — in this case, for compelling big radio chains to sell some of their stations.

As you may have guessed, the focus of this Senate Commerce Committee hearing was the Dixie Chicks, the country music performers from Texas who caught flak last spring for remarks about President Bush and the war in Iraq. At a concert in London, lead singer Natalie Maines told the audience, ‘‘Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.’’ She later apologized for being disrespectful but reiterated her doubts about the war.

The apology didn’t help. As Lewis Dickey, CEO of the 270-station Cumulus Broadcasting group, recalled during the hearing, ‘‘There was a groundswell of negative reaction by our listeners against the band. We had never seen anything like it before. Calls were coming in ... from our individual program directors across the country, saying there was a hue and cry from our listeners regarding those remarks that was unprecedented.’’

Cumulus responded by barring Dixie Chicks songs from its 50 or so country music stations for a month. ‘‘At the same time,’’ Dickey noted, “our Top 40 radio stations in the same markets ... continued to play the Dixie Chicks,” because ‘‘we didn’t have the hue and cry from our listeners.’’

Dickey concluded that continuing to play the Dixie Chicks on the chain’s country stations would alienate listeners and ultimately cost Cumulus money. I’m not sure the 30-day ban was a smart business move, but there’s no question the decision was the company’s to make.

No question, that is, except in the minds of John McCain and people who share his confusion. McCain called the Dixie Chicks moratorium ‘‘an incredible, incredible act,’’ explaining: ‘‘I was ... as offended as anyone by the statement of the Dixie Chicks. But to restrain their trade because they exercised their right of free speech to me is remarkable.’’ Not just incredible and remarkable, McCain told Dickey, but unconstitutional: ‘‘Because if someone else in another format offends you, and there’s a huge hue and cry, and you decide to censor those people, my friend, the erosion of the First Amendment in the United States of America is in progress.’’

If anything qualifies as incredible, it’s McCain’s understanding of the Constitution. The First Amendment says, ‘‘Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.’’ It does not impose any obligations on radio stations.

McCain was not the only senator at the hearing who had trouble telling the difference between a private business decision and government censorship. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., likened Dixie Chicks boycotters to Nazi book burners and ‘‘communist dictators’’ who ‘‘strip out all the works of art that they don’t agree with.’’ In case that was not enough to scare you, both McCain and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., summoned up the most nightmarish scenario they could imagine if, heaven forbid, radio stations started routinely responding to the demands of their listeners: What if a senator said something offensive, and a chain of radio stations decided to keep him off the air for a month?

Simon Renshaw, the Dixie Chicks’ manager, conceded that “the (radio) networks enjoy the same First Amendment rights as my clients.” Those rights include the freedom to choose the music they play. Yet Renshaw insisted it was inappropriate to consider politics in writing playlists because doing so would ‘‘undermine free speech.’’

Like McCain, Boxer and Dorgan, Renshaw seems to think the right to free speech means the right to say what you want not only without being punished by the government but without paying any cost at all. He’s wrong.

Just ask Michael Savage, whose MSNBC talk show was recently canceled after he made some nasty remarks to a gay radio caller, or Dr. Laura, who suffered a similar fate because of her statements about homosexuality. Both were exercising their freedom of speech, but so were the critics who wanted them off the air. Jacob Sullum is a senior editor with Reason magazine and a nationally syndicated columnist. His column publishes on Saturday.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: dixiechicks; mccain
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To: South40
Ban McCain...
21 posted on 07/13/2003 6:31:14 PM PDT by Libloather (Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire - ewww...)
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To: South40
Mc Cain and the dixke slits all think alike they hate bush and what he stands for he is for America and they have a hard time with that.
22 posted on 07/13/2003 6:46:17 PM PDT by solo gringo (Always Ranting Always Rite)
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To: South40
A lot of people were fooled. I think he is very vindictive. I don't trust him and never will plus when he told Maria Shriver to shut up or get out of his way that time as he was leaving a political hall I thought he showed his true colors not to mention his butt with that kind of talk and immature behavior. He's not someone I would want in the White House.
23 posted on 07/14/2003 7:29:08 AM PDT by cubreporter
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To: MNJohnnie; Grunthor; KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle; pissant; Liz

Bump!

Thanks for reminding me, MNJ. I had forgotten about this one.


24 posted on 05/25/2008 6:47:09 PM PDT by calcowgirl (Schwarzenegger and McCain are trying to castrate the elephant)
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To: calcowgirl

hehehehe


25 posted on 05/25/2008 6:48:14 PM PDT by Grunthor (The GOP would be better off LOSING then electing McCain. - MNJohnnie)
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To: calcowgirl

BTTT


26 posted on 05/25/2008 6:50:30 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: calcowgirl

My, my, look what bubbled back up...McCain preaching about the 1st Amendment. LOL!


27 posted on 05/25/2008 6:52:11 PM PDT by TADSLOS (The GOP death march to the gravesite is underway.)
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To: calcowgirl

HEHEHEHEHE


28 posted on 05/25/2008 6:57:33 PM PDT by Grunthor (The GOP would be better off LOSING then electing McCain. - MNJohnnie)
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To: South40
Gee, think this is aimed at talk radio?
29 posted on 05/25/2008 7:04:08 PM PDT by razorback-bert (Demorats tax returns consists of "welfare in" and " child support out.")
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To: TADSLOS; TigersEye; Grunthor
McCain preaching about the 1st Amendment. LOL!

That is the First Amendment? I sure didn't recognize it! The Dixie Chicks had a right to be played on a radio station? Should we all demand to get play-time, too?

30 posted on 05/25/2008 7:20:42 PM PDT by calcowgirl (Schwarzenegger and McCain are trying to castrate the elephant)
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To: South40

Can I have space on McCain’s official website to voice my opinion of his understanding of the constitution?

If he doesn’t give it to me that’s censorship! /SARC


31 posted on 05/25/2008 7:21:07 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: razorback-bert

It’s as if he knew in advance talk radio would not support him and his anti-American agenda. :-)


32 posted on 05/25/2008 7:25:33 PM PDT by South40 (Amnesty is a slap in the face to the USBP!)
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To: calcowgirl

Can I apply this McLogic to the 2nd Amendment? That means that I can shoot whoever I want. Excellent! ;^)


33 posted on 05/25/2008 8:06:14 PM PDT by TigersEye (Berlin 1936. Olympics for murdering regimes. Beijing 2008.)
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