I’ve just posted Ken Morefield‘s review of Shut Up and Sing, the new documentary about the Dixie Chicks and the trouble they fell into when one of them said something critical about the President. After musing about the effects of Natalie’s challenging lyrics, he ends up considering the effects… or lack of them… caused by a certain television personality.

Here’s a great clip:

… my moment of clarity while watching the film came not from something said by Natalie, Emily, or Martie, but by Bill O’ Reilly who opines that the Dixie Chicks just need to be β€œslapped around.” Strange, isn’t it, how that statement didn’t seem to offend anyone, how it’s not a big controversy to this day, and how nobody is threatening to boycott Fox News if they continue to play his work? Perhaps it’s just understood that his words were not meant literally. Perhaps his words were borne of frustration and strenuous disagreement. Perhaps he simply made a poor choice of words and ought to be allowed some slack for the occasional blunder given how much time he spends in front of a microphone. Perhaps advocating violence against women really isn’t thought to be as serious an offense in this day and age as expressing disdain for the President of the United States. Perhaps Toby Keith’s β€œboot in your ass” is not just America’s answer to other nations that don’t bow before it but also to its own citizens who don’t toe the ruling party line.

Perhaps he really just meant what he said.

All of a sudden, Natalie’s lyrics don’t seem quite so melodramatically exaggerated, do they?

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