Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Ditsy Chicks

Friday March 28, 2003

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A couple of weeks ago, a member of the singing group The Dixie Chicks said that she was embarrassed that President George W. Bush was from Texas. She said this on stage, in London, working (as we in show biz like to say) the crowd.

This chick - or Chick - apologized but not before a number of radio stations decided not to play the group's songs any more. I suspect Country music fans are somewhat more patriotic as a group than, say, fans of some deathcore, hair-heavy-industrial-metal group. In fact, the only Country song I can sing all the way through is "I'm Proud to be an American."

The other morning as I was driving from San Ramon to the Oakland airport at what, in a former life, a sergeant with a sense of humor used to call "oh-dark-thirty," I was listening to some guy reading a commentary about the Dixie Chick sitch on National Public Radio.

His point was that we are fighting a war in Iraq, to bring freedom to the Iraqi people, so they can have the right to say whatever they want, and isn't this business of boycotting them ironic, yadda-yadda-blah-blah.

Not the least bit original as to thought or concept, but it fits perfectly with National Public Radio's deepest and most closely held belief: Saying bad things about a Republican is always a good thing.

[At this point I had a long, but milk-spittingly funny, riff about missing my flight but I decided to move it to the Secret Decoder Ring page where it is available for your viewing.]

And he was wrong. A Dixie Chick, or Martin Sheen, or anybody else has the ABSOLUTE RIGHT to say anything they want without fear of going to jail in America.

However, the only reason anyone reports what they say is because of their celebrity. The only reason they are celebrities is because people pay to see them sing, or act, or whatever.

Those same people have the absolute right to cease paying them if the singers and actors, in the opinion of the people who are paying the bills, misuse that celebrity status to make a political point.

Everyone has the Constitutional right to say stupid things. There is no Constitutional protection against suffering financially for having said them.

You wouldn't pay to hear me sing. You shouldn't pay to hear the Dixie Chicks deliver political commentary.

NPR, thumbed its collective nose at the Country stations which had pulled the Dixie Chicks off the air by playing a long excerpt from one of their songs. Probably for the first and last time.

If I were a fan of the Dixie Chicks - which I am not - and if I had bottles of French wine - which I do not - I would pour the wine on their CDs and consider two problems solved.

Another annoyance: I was flipping through the cable news channels and came across someone who was sadly reporting that only about 34 percent of the country now thought the war was going well.

That 34 percent number was shocking. So. I looked it up.

Here's the scoop: The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll asked: "How would you say the war with Iraq has gone for the U.S. so far: very well, moderately well, moderately badly, or very badly?"

As the commentator suggested, 34% said "very well." But what he neglected to say was that 51% said it was going "moderately well." Put together, fully EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT of those polled had a favorable view toward the conduct of the war.

By the way, the most recent CBS/NY Times poll - not exactly two news organizations with a reputation for being in the employ of the Bush White House - asked the same question and came up with 84% (32% very well, 52% somewhat well).

These results indicate slightly different version of public sentiment than that commentator presented.

And the commentator did not appear to have been a Dixie Chick.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: The mini-travelogue about turning my car in, a brand new photo of the Mullmeister, a photo of the Ditsy Chicks and a very worthwhile Catchy Caption of the Day!

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