Reprise is owned by Warner Bros. who's tied in with AOL-Turner-CNN. I can make my own BIG MEDIA connection for their tale.
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It was all a Republican scam.
Published on 05/21/03 at 01:07:47 PST by Admin
There was no reason to interpret the hostile response that followed Maines's anti-war comments as a spontaneous reaction of an outraged country audience. In fact it now appears the attack on the Dixie Chicks was a political maneuver no less calculated than the Watergate break-in.
At least according to former Reprise Records president Howie Klein. "Phone calls originating from Republican Party headquarters in Washington went out to country stations, urging them to remove the Dixie Chicks from their playlists." Klein says.
"The 'alternative concert' [to the Dixie Chicks' tour opener] was actually the work of the South Carolina Republican Party. And party officials were helping promote the concert. We received a call from 'Gallagher's Army,' urging us to support the alternative concert. Caller ID backtraced the call to South Carolina GOP headquarters."
Chain radio stations were quick to dump the Chicks because their parent companies (Clear Channel, Viacom, et al) have pressing business in the nation's capitol and they want help from the Republican Party. For instance Secretary of State Colin Powell's son is currently chairman of the FCC which is in the midst of deciding whether or not to relax federal regulations which currently stand in the way of a complete Radio Monopoly.
So was this pre-emptive payback for future favors from the Government? Only time will tell.
Original:
http://www.rockrap.com/new/chicks.html
Sources:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030515/media_nm/media_fcc_powell_dc_1
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/bw/20030520/bs_bw/nf200305208395db028
Reprise is owned by Warner Bros. who's tied in with AOL-Turner-CNN. I can make my own BIG MEDIA connection for their tale.