The Dixie Chicks: A Profile in Courage, Says NYT

Times music critic Jon Pareles thinks the anti-Bush country group The Dixie Chicks were right all along in Sunday’s front page Arts & Leisure feature, "The Dixie Chicks: America Catches Up With Them"

"The Dixie Chicks call it 'the Incident': the anti-Bush remark that Natalie Maines, their lead singer, made onstage in London in 2003. 'Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas,' said Ms. Maines, a Texan herself.

"It led to a partisan firestorm, a radio boycott, death threats and, now, to an album that's anything but repentant."

What Pareles doesn’t mention: It also got them cover stories on several news magazines and newspapers back then, and they’re still milking their profile in courage -- Time Magazine this week has them on the cover in a typically favorable article (they apparently have "The Biggest Balls In American Music," apparently because it's just so courageous to stand up in front of an anti-war audience and bash Bush).

Nevertheless, Pareles casts the Chicks as victims of conservatives: "[Maines'] remark was reported in Britain and quickly picked up. Right-wing blogs and talk shows vilified the Dixie Chicks as unpatriotic and worse, and the Incident reached the nightly news....Ms. Maines's free speech was costly. Country radio stations were bombarded with calls demanding that the Dixie Chicks be dropped from playlists. Within days, songs from the Chicks' 2002 album, 'Home,' virtually disappeared from American airwaves. They had the No. 1 country single that week with ‘Travelin' Soldier,’ which mourns a soldier killed in Vietnam; it plummeted to No. 63."

Pareles allows Maines to relate a half-baked sob story to make her look sensitive: "'We have video footage of this lady at one of the shows protesting, holding her 2-year-old son,’ Ms. Maines said. The woman commanded her son to shout along with an angry chant. 'And I was just like, that's it right there. That's the moment that it's taught. She just taught her 2-year-old how to hate. And that broke my heart.'

"The band received death threats, including at least one, in Dallas, that the F.B.I.. considered credible. A newspaper printed Ms. Maines's home address in Austin, Tex., and she ended up moving first outside the city and then to Los Angeles. On the American tour a handful of boos were drowned out by fervent cheers. Suddenly there was more at stake than toe-tapping tunes."

Incidentally, conservative commentator Michelle Malkin has als had her address posted, by left-wingers, and been demonized by them in the most vulgar and racist terms. Can we expect a similar story from the Times on harassed minority bloggers?

For more New York Times bias, visit TimesWatch.