These Chicks Are Made For Clucking

The Dixie Chicks are back in the news, once again the center of controversy on two counts--one being their movie release entitled 'Shut Up and Sing,' which serves as a vehicle for the Chicks to continue to unleash their continual stream of Bush-bashing, and the other being the fact that both NBC and CW Television are refusing to air ads for the movie. The decision by the two networks is based upon the rationale that because of their overt political overtones during an election year, there is no appropriate time-slot to place such ads.

One may well argue that the decision not to run the ads is a violation of free speech. Yet this is precisely the predicament in which organizations such as the NRA find themselves as election day draws near, under the provisions of McCain-Feingold.

The McCain-Feingold Act prevents organizations like the NRA from running ads close to Election Day. The NRA strongly objected to its provisions, claiming that their right to free speech was being violated.

This is precisely the argument of the Chicks concerning their ads. So, why should the Chicks be allowed to run overtly political advertising so close to an election when the NRA cannot?

I strongly suspect that the timing of the release of the movie itself was carefully coordinated with the sizeable Bush-hating element in Hollywood and among film-makers. It is very interesting, indeed, that not only are we treated to the Chicks' movie premier two weeks prior to an election but a well-coordinated scheme to keep the Foley scandal in the news far beyond its significance, as well as the revelation that George Soros, the Democrat billionaire, is meeting on a daily basis with network news brass to bury positive stories about Bush and headline the negative ones.

No doubt the Dixie Chicks are well-talented. For some odd reason, however, they have chosen to emphasize their politics rather than their art. It isn't as if they needed the publicity. Their talent speaks for itself. But their propensity for creating controversy by talking rather than singing has unfortunately resulted in the near demise of their careers. By and large music fans pay their money to hear their favorite artists perform and not to treat them to political lectures. The fans, as it turns out, voted with their pocketbooks, forsaking the latest Chicks' concert tour in droves, causing several venues to cancel and others to move to smaller concert halls.

As a takeoff on the old Nancy Sinatra song, 'These boots are made for walking,' apparently these Chicks are made for clucking. Like three chickens in the barnyard, they cluck, incessantly gibbering about their politics, when all the fans wanted was to hear their enormous talent.