The Weinstein Co. is claiming that NBC and the CW have refused to air national ads for the new Dixie Chicks docu “Shut Up & Sing.”
But while the Peacock has specifically said it won’t accept the spots because they are disparaging of President Bush, a rep for the CW strongly denies the Weinsteins version of events.
Barbara Kopple’s docu, which opens today in Gotham and L.A., revisits the fierce fallout that occurred in 2003 after lead singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed that the president is from Texas, her home state.
The national spot shows a clip of Bush authorizing troops to fight in Iraq, then cuts to a clip of Maines’ comment. Next is a clip of the president saying publicly that the Dixie Chicks shouldn’t have their feelings hurt if people don’t want to buy their records anymore. The final frame shows Maines saying that Bush is a “real dumb (bleep).”
TWC wanted the national ads to begin running next week in preparation for the movie’s expansion on Nov. 11. Company said it hasn’t heard back yet from the commercial clearance departments at ABC, CBS and Fox.
“It’s a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America,” Harvey Weinstein said in a statement. “The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is profoundly un-American.”
According to the Weinstein Co., NBC’s commercial clearance department said in writing that it “cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.”
TWC also quoted a rep from the CW as saying it had concerns that “we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot.”
CW communications topper Paul McGuire rejected that version of events.
“That’s not true,” he said. “The spot was not declined. In fact, we were told they were not going to make a national spot buy on CW.”
Here’s the ad. I don’t see anything in it that’s any worse than the sort of treatment Bush gets on talk shows like Keith Olbermann’s and Chris Matthews’.
This is just speculation, but I’m willing to bet that the Dixie Chicks’ PR people staged this. I believe they thought they’d announce to the press that such-and-such a network won’t run their ads because they’re too controversial, and then the public would hear about it and think to themselves, “Gee, this movie must be controversial...I should watch it!” I actually see that sort of thing all the time in all the emails from political activists I get. They all want me to write a post on how some newspaper or radio station or whatever won’t run their ad because it’s too controversial. What they really want is free attention for their ad and cause without having to actually pay for it to appear in the newspaper or whatever.
Personally, I think the Dixie Chicks movie looks pretty dumb (trailer available here). Why am I supposed to care about some millionaire musicians who ticked off their fan base with their politics? Nobody stopped the Dixie Chicks from saying what they wanted to say. That they managed to torpedo their own music careers is hardly something that’s going to win over my sympathy.