The FREEPER strategy on responding to Dixie Chicks manager's comments

Cincinatti Enquirer ^ | 3/19/2003 | jagrmiester

[HighWheeler]

Her "apology" was not a retraction of what she said. She was only sorry to "disrespect" Bush.

If you want to see her true feelings of what she thinks about her situation, go see her home page:

http://www.nataliemaines.com/

[wardaddy]

Renshaw's e-mail was down when I hit him earlier.

BTw...remind me never to piss you off.

I think local radio was on this today here on Phil Valentine.

Good Job!!! Can we fix it?...Yes we can!

[HighWheeler]

You need to pressure Lipton tea also, who sponsors these anti-American backstabbers.

[Yaron]

Either you like their music or you don't. I don't care for their politics but that is irrelevent to me and will not influence my decision to purchase or listen to their music.

[Rocky]

I saw Travis Tritt speaking out against the Dixie Chicks last night on the news.

[BraveMan]

              Bump!

[SLB]

I thought it was: Baghdad Broads or maybe the Baghdad Witches (never could get the spelling of that right)

[MonroeDNA]

Gotta bump this one!

[MonroeDNA]

Welcome, newbie.

Lurk more.

[rocky88]

Some helpful info to consider while the strategy is being set....

1. Here's some radio industry/trade sites for station contact info (I know there is a website directory for every station in the country on the allaccess.com site):

www.allaccess.com (this is the biggest radio & records industry website - i would suggest registering and then infiltrating the ranks)

www.fmqb.com (trade magazine)

www.radio-info.com

www.rab.com

www.nab.org (National Association of Broadcasters)
- email: radio@nab.org

http://www.nab.org/directories/Associates/MemberList.asp?id=1325 (go here to let all the very well-paid programming consultants know how you feel!!!)


2.I would suggest cc'ng the e-mail to the General Managers, Operations Managers, Program Directors and Morning air personalities for maximum effect and political reasons - get the buzz going inside the station AND on air.

3. And don't forget, faxes work very well at radio stations too (they don't get many - too many listeners rely on the phones to contact them) so a fax may be very effective.

4. Oh one other thing - it may be effective to contact certain state broadcasting associations in heavy country format markets such as Texas Association of Broadcasters (www.tab.org).. here's a GREAT page with all of those state links: http://newsdirectory.com/assoc/na/us/broadcast/

Glad to be of FReeper service!!!

[wizzler]

This Dixie Chicks stuff is getting a little ridiculous.

Yes, what Natalie Maines said was goofy. But by reacting so forcefully against a sentence she uttered, you're treating her as if her words have some sort of sacred power. You're empowering the idea that what entertainers say is important -- when for weeks everybody around here has been pointing out, rightfully, that we shouldn't take celebrity opinion seriously.

Sure, don't buy her music anymore. Throw away your Dixie Chicks CDs and concert tickets. Whatever. But it's silly to sit here a week later making such a stink about something she said at a frickin concert. And why even give a second thought to what some band manager says about Free Republic? Who cares?! Are people around here that insecure about the reputation of Free Republic? If somebody says something untrue and outlandish, the best reaction is to show confidence and self-assuredness -- by ignoring it.

This whole episode has a sad resemblance to the kind of hair-trigger hypersensitivity we're used to seeing from the left, where every half-controversial sentence is parsed with the microscope of political correctness, and everyone puffs up their self-righteousness as they take "offense" at the words of others.

Think about it: Are any of you truly "offended," in the real sense of that word? Did her words actually cause you emotional pain? Are you really hurt?

Here's the part where someone will respond by saying, "If you don't like what we're doing, don't bother posting here," or, "If you don't like what we're doing, why are you reading this thread," blah blah blah.

[MonroeDNA]

What's Lipton's email?

[longtermmemmory]

I do not mean to be difficult, try switching this"he has rendered hollow the Dixie Chicks apology and eviscerated any goodwill gained by Maines' apology." for this

he has eviscerated any potential forgivness we fans may have had for Maines in the years to follow, by compounding an insulting hollow appology with an insulting excuse.


I leave it to you.

[longtermmemmory]

we could check the waybackmachine. It stores each and every web page ever made. Yes its based on the Peabody and Sherman adventures.

[Eye4nEye]

I found this info at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/foib@ianbell.com/msg00075.html

The rhetoric is even more imflammatory than that published in the newspaper!

From: Ian Andrew Bell
Subject: @F: Fwd: FW: MORE DIXIE CHICKS
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 11:29:22 -0800
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Begin forwarded message:

From: "DM" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon Mar 17, 2003 11:19:29 AM US/Pacific
To: "Ian Andrew Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: FW: MORE DIXIE CHICKS

And a little more on the Dixie Babes&#x2026;

?

?

Subject:MORE DIXIE CHICKS

?

Subject: THIS IS SCARY - The Dixie Chicks - Who Are The Fans? (A
Conspiracy!)

Simon Renshaw, the Chicks' manager, requests that this get forwarded to
you, since he doesn't have your direct E-mails.

Dear All,

The last couple of days have been very interesting, why does an artist exercising her rights of free speech create such a firestorm of media attention, and why are the "fans" responding the way they are? Sure, these are difficult times ? but the response from the fan's seems far too extreme
- that was until I received the following email from our contacts at Lipton, who had received it from a concerned citizen -? please read on:

Subject: Regarding Chicks - DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED

Hello

You should know that your company is being targetted by a radical right-wing online forum.? You are being "FReeped", which is the code word for an organized email/telephone effort attempting to solicit a desired response. Please go to http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/864728/posts
and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/863398/posts

for evidence of this.

claims over 30,000 members.

The opinions on this forum are often racist, violent, and homophobic. I hope you will not feel pressured by them to change your policies. Keep in mind that they are very active and will give the appearance of a widespread reaction when in fact it's limited to their isolated group. These are not people you want to cater to, as you will see if you spend a little time observing them. And don't feel bad. Besides you, they are boycotting Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Belgium, and 3/4 of hollywood.

They are so petty that they research goods they believe are produced by these nations and list them for boycotting. The dumb thing is they get it wrong half the time.

I will be very dissappointed with Lipton if it tries to appease these radicals. I would continue to buy Lipton regardless though :)

When we went to the site it was clear what was going on, this organization had not targeted Lipton for their campaign, they had selected the Chicks for "FReeping."

As we reviewed the site we came across a whole area that was devoted to the Chicks, and more specifically the activities of the campaign against them, check it out:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/keyword/dixiechicks

As you move around this area and start to look at specific threads you will see that these people have actively manipulated radio polls, and how proud they are of their handiwork.

Here's some of their exchanges regarding their specific attempts to manipulate radio polls, notice the advice given on trying to ensure that their manipulations remain disguised:

To: webfooter

Cat Country in Harrisburg has a poll on whether they should stop playing the Chicks. They attribute the quote to Natalie.

Current vote is 5 for and 5 against.
I would recommend only locals vote, but you FReepers can do what you want.
Shalom.

To: webfooter; LindaSOG; Kathy in Alaska; radu; bentfeather; southerngrit;
Bethbg79; All

One of the country stations in my area is boycotting them: Here's the link! Please freepmail them thanks! I have done so already!!

WCMS


38 posted on 03/13/2003 1:52 PM PST by MoJo2001 (God Bless Our Troops and Allies!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: All

LOL!! Um, email them! Don't freepmail them! My bad!

39 posted on 03/13/2003 1:52 PM PST by MoJo2001 (God Bless Our Troops and
Allies!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies ]

To: MoJo2001

FReep Natalie Maines' hometown country station! Natelie Maines' home radio station (KLLL.com) and email address of the DJ's. Just in case anybody wants to drop them a friendly email about boycotting the Chicks. As a bonus, pappa and the family live here too, so you are sure to get noticed.

And here are the emails:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jon Steele)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rick Gilbert)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Stacey James)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tony Alexander)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jay Richards)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kelly Greene)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tommy Duncan)


The above is the tip of the iceberg,? you need to read it all, to believe it.

It is interesting that as I review the comments being made across bulletin boards hosted by ourselves, country radio stations, and by CMT, the similarity of the style of the invective ? vitriol cloaked in patriotism, very much what you will find on this site.

Let no one underestimate the power of this group, yesterday our web site was totally overrun and had to be closed down, our publicist's servers and telephone system failed under the weight of the calls. This is an extremely active and well organized group

As always the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" and these weasels know how to squeak.

Consider a radio station that receives 1,000 calls and emails from listeners demanding that they boycott the Chicks music, they ignore the fact that 17,500 fans have bought tickets to a show in a couple of months and seem to think that these 1,000 calls/emails are somehow reflective of their audiences' wishes. Yet, the box office at the local venue receives only 3 calls regarding the show and wanting to know if they can arrange to return the tickets! Now the authenticity of the 1,000 is in question!

I am shocked by what I see, I trust you will be too.

Best wishes,
Sr

Simon Renshaw
The Firm
9465 Wilshire Blvd
5th Floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Tel: 310-860-8205
Fax: 310-860-8128
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]




RadioPro (TM)

[Eowyn-of-Rohan]

GOOD GRIEF all of you...why don't you just burn them at the stake for God's sake?! This is a free country, remember?

[IncredibleHulk]

Here's the part where someone will respond by saying...

Wrong! This is the part where someone says, "Now we have a forum and we can sound off and and we can have a voice of our own. We aren't dependent on the liberal media to give us a way to spread the word or organize ourselves so we don't have to pretend to be bigger than them and 'take it like a man' any more. Now we can make those rats pay for their thoughtless, uncaring, pampered stupidity and we can all shout with one voice, 'I AM MAD AS HELL AND I AIN'T GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE!'

hulkster

[Doctor Raoul]

why don't you just burn them at the stake for God's sake?!

We'd need to bring in those oil well fire experts to put out the fat one.

[wizzler]

Huh? Yes, we have a forum. My argument is not about whether we have a forum or not, but about the most judicious use of it.

In my judgment, all this shrill anger is simply rage about something else, uselessly misdirected toward a really silly object (a country-pop music trio). I'm almost scared to know what the real source of the rage is.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

You are framing the debate from liberal standpoint, not that you are- no offense- that the motivation is based on emotion pain or distress rather than tactical for a greater good.

No, I genuinely do not care what this girl thinks, fyi, I'm not even a Country fan (although I recently bought my 1st album; Toby Keith's Unleashed). The importance the FR action and the mostly unrelated calls to radio stations (up til this point), cannot be pigeonholed to the degree in which said statement was offensive to us or military families.

Chrissy Hindes and a number of other were obviously far worse.

The importance here isn't that we are mind numbed robots waking up from being hypmotized into getting marching orders from People Magazine and ET. It is that we have long since disagreed with the mentality of celebrities and finally we are subjecting them to market forces.

This is a capitialistic aspect that I am sure they disagree with, however, like most things in reality that is irrelevant.

In closing, the point here shouldn't be lost as an emotional reaction, it is a signal that beating the Dixie Chicks into the ground through boycott (which is free speech for those spinners who don't understand the 1st Amendment refers to legislation) is a wise thing on the part of the Free Republic. It sends a clear signal to many that we'll know, just as toppling Saddam sends an important message elsewhere, that our days of capitulating or being worn down are OVER.

God Bless you Country fans, you are all true Americans fighting on the homefront.