RE: "The musicians who were at the forefront of the "protest music" movement (Dylan, John Lennon) were far less effective in turning the tide against the war than the mainstream media were. What turned Americans against Vietnam was the barrage of nightly images of carnage and death, body bags and genocide, that were presented to America by Walter Cronkite, not by Country Joe and the Fish. Musicians reflect public opinion, they don't shape it."
I thought this would be a good article but the premise is wrong. I think musicians can and do shape opinions and behavior, especially in young people.
To me the author sounds like another Canadian trying to premise his thesis on "what Americans think" and getting it only half right which is another way of saying he gets it wrong.