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February 13, 2007
At Grammies: Chicks rule over media monopolies
 Personally, as a big fan (previous blog on the documentary Shut Up and Sing), I was excited to see the Dixie Chicks sweep five Grammy categories this year, including the trifecta: album, record and song of the year. And, as opponents of media consolidation and its negative impact on the diversity of both music and speech -- we at the state PIRGs were pleased as well. As the New York Times editorialized today in The Courage of Others' Convictions:
The awards -- including for the trio's fittingly titled album "Taking the Long Way" and the song "Not Ready to Make Nice" -- ended a desolate period in which their music was boycotted and banned by country music stations, their CDs were burned and smashed, and group members' lives were threatened. All that for disagreeing with a president in a total of twelve words. Our Media and Democracy Coalition colleague Jonathan Rintels of the Center for Creative Voices explains the importance of media diversity from a creator's perspective at his Huffington Post blog entry: Grammys: Yes to Chicks, No to Censorship, Consolidation. Here's an excerpt:
Was it mere coincidence that at the very same time these big media conglomerates were vilifying the Chicks and/or giving the administration a pass on its Iraq policy, they were also intensely lobbying the administration to free them from the media ownership limits they loathe? One reason these limits are in place is to make sure that a wide diversity of viewpoints and voices have access to our nation's publicly-owned broadcast airwaves. Having diverse viewpoints and voices could provide a necessary counterweight to the Big Media mischief that victimized the Chicks -- and the American public -- and turned a MSM {Main Stream Media] that is supposed to be a watch dog on our government into its lap dog. You can tell the FCC that you oppose weakening media ownership limits at PIRG's action page here.
Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at February 13, 2007 05:51 AM
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