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“Exposing & Combating Liberal Media Bias”
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Music IndustryWaPo's Joe Heim: Country Music Often Filled with Hate"When they're runnin' down my country [music], man, they're walkin' on the fightin' side of me." Merle Haggard's most famous lyric could well be adapted to express the reaction country music fans may have upon reading Joe Heim's latest review in the June 30 Washington Post. Heim's lead paragraph begins with a drive-by attack on the genre as a whole:
Heim set forward this straw man in order to more effusively praise country artist Brad Paisley as a "forward-thinking" artist in the vein of say the Bush-bashing "Dixie Chicks" for his latest album, "American Saturday Night" which "celebrates cultural diversity, lionizes women, stirringly welcomes a black president and, for good measure, whoops it up about drinkin' and fishin.'" AP Furthers Green Day's Anti-Wal-Mart Whine Over 'Censoring' New AlbumIn a classic example of a dog-bites-man non-story, the Associated Press is dutifully furthering the "censorship" whine of a rock band that laments that Wal-Mart won't stock its new album, "21st Century Breakdown." Today, Associated Press music writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody hacked out 13 paragraphs to relay how "Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy." Of course the discount retailer's standards for music fit for its shelves are hardly new nor are they being applied out of the blue to the rockers. Nonetheless, Moody stacked the deck by quoting two of the band's three members against one Wal-Mart executive. Bono Discovers Sustainable Development Isn’t Sustainable
And so it is with “sustainable development”. It just isn’t sustainable. At least it does not sustain a lifestyle that those who promote it would consider acceptable for themselves. But of course that is the key. Renewable energy and sustainable development are for “other people”. Even though environmentalists come from societies and very often families that became rich because of their use of non-renewable energy and unsustainable development they will not allow these opportunities to be extended to the poor in the developing world. Environmentalists come from wealthy societies and families who cut down forests and burned coal and oil to make their families and societies healthy and prosperous. But, nowadays, for the poor in Africa and Asia and even middle America their path out of poverty must be “sustainable.” No fossil fuels or factories for them. But what this really means is sustainable poverty. It is a system that condemns people to a lifetime of drudgery and subsistence farming because modernity and industrialisation is “unsustainable.” Which brings me to Bono, the lead singer of rock band U2 and more lately a campaigner for sustainable development in Africa, Asia and south America. iTunes for Obama? Apple Posts 'Hope & Change' Playlist
For the iPod-less, there are many playlists that are created by users, but the "Essentials" lists are made by Apple. It says it was posted April 28, but sounds like it was posted January 20. See the goopy Obama-loving text that came with the songs:
WaPo Music Critic Accuses Country Musicians of 'Narrowcasting' to Small Town AmericaIf you're a country music fan you might be advised to avoid reading the Washington Post Style section when its writers tackle country music. It might make you want to put your boot up the critic's posterior. The latest nuisance is J. Freedom du Lac's analysis of why country music radio is so chock full of songs about small town America. To you and me, the answer might be obvious, but du Lac set out to paint the trend as "divisive" and reactionary. In this excerpt, du Lac sets out to discredit the professional opinion of a D.C.-area country music station programmer:
Musician's Lawsuit Over Conservative Parody Threatens Free Speech
Don Henley makes no effort to hide his political leanings. In addition to performing at scores of fundraisers, Henley has given about $750,000 to partisan, liberal causes, including $10,000 to Barack Obama and $9,000 to DeVore’s soon-to-be opponent, Barbara Boxer. Henley also exploits his music to advance a liberal, political agenda. Bozell Column: Harvard vs. The Hood
1. Will the Obama presidency drain the swamp of hip-hop hate? Can he remake the dividers into uniters? On Tuesday night, the rapper Jay-Z performed on the ABC Inaugural ball special in a tux and nerdy glasses, toning down the thug-rap with a song called "History." ABC didn’t have to bleep a single word, even if the older demographics in the audience were still wondering why this is called music. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the pendulum of rap music swung away from glorifying the "thug life" of drug dealers, pimps, and gangsters? With a black man in the White House, could rappers be less pessimistic about authority? When talking about The Man, there is no more powerful man in Washington than the black man just sworn in as our 44th president. PBS Ombudsman Raps Anti-Palin Wisecrack
CNN's Chetry: 'Please Tell Me It's Not Lipstick Again'
Kid Rock: Entertainers Should 'Keep Their Mouths Shut on Politics'
How many times have you seen the uninformed blather of some goof from Hollywood, or some crank from the music industry filling your TV screen or oozing from your radio? How many low brow maestros have had your eyes rolling when they imagine themselves to have some prescient insight into matters of politics? Apparently rock singer Kid Rock is signing onto your piquancy because he has said that singers should just shut up about politics. Celebrities Decamp Hollywood for Denver & DNC
Madonna Compares McCain to Hitler, Obama to Gandhi (w/video!)
UPDATED with video at end of post. n case you missed it with the Olympics going on, Russia invading Georgia, and the campaign for president in full swing, pop star Madonna started her much-awaited tour in Wales Saturday. Amidst the requisite autoerotic writhing and gyrating, Madonna managed to bash John McCain -- actually equating him to Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe! -- while comparing Barack Obama to Mahatma Gandhi. I kid you not. As reported by the Associated Press Saturday (emphasis added, photo courtesy Getty Images, h/t RightPundits via Marc Morano): Bozell Column: Obama and the Hip-Hop ProblemYoung black activists roared their approval when Barack Obama recently greeted criticism on the trail by dusting off his shoulders, a reference to a rap song by Jay-Z called "Dirt Off Your Shoulder." The media covering the moment went crazy, too. Washington Post reporter Teresa Wiltz hailed Obama’s moves and called it a "seminal moment in the campaign, the merging of politics and pop culture," and noted the lyrics suggest "If you feelin’ like a pimp...go and brush your shoulders off." So Barack Obama is feeling like a pimp? Online at "The Root," a Washington Post website for African-Americans, Obama supporter and Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell was sky high. "Like every other hip-hop generation voter in America I went crazy when he did it," she wrote. "I almost couldn’t believe it. It was a perfect moment." Harris-Lacewell read that moment as a sign of racial swagger and solidarity with "his base of young urban brown and black voters" and they loved it. "He displayed all the familiar self-assurance and bravado of the hip-hop emcee. The people who got it went nuts, while those who don’t know hip-hop just thought he was being funny and confident." The video went viral and became a YouTube sensation. Alicia Keys, Racial Paranoid
Conservative Rapper Takes on Barack ObamaShowing that the left doesn't have a monopoly on political music or political videos, a rapper going by the handle DJ Clayvis released an anti-Barack Obama video, inspired in part by Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos. Here it is: I'd shorten it up a bit but this is a very good effort, compares very well to the Obama "Yes We Can" video. H/t: TechRepublican. Obama Beats Out Clinton and Carter for Second Grammy
Well, think again, for on Sunday evening, presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-Ill.) won his second Grammy in three years (first win pictured to the right). Deliciously, and possibly a foreshadowing of things to come, Obama's victory came at the expense of a Clinton. As reported by Reuters moments ago (emphasis added throughout): Johnny Cougar MellenCAN'T
Aside from the general "who cares" of this incident, it is just one more example of the intolerance of the left in America today.Then again Johnny Cougar always was a guy that took himself waaaay too seriously. Will MSM Ignore Rap Song Promoting Maturity, Responsibility?
Okay, I'm a nearly 50 year-old white dude, so you won't catch me trying to be "all that" with the kid's rap music. In fact, I hate the stuff. [I was listening to Beethoven, Glenn Miller, U2 and The Police today, if that helps pinpoint me] HOWEVER... and this is a big one, too... I am compelled to pass on the latest tune from Mr. Bomani D. Armah, the self-proclaimed "not a rapper" rapper. You may recall the last time Mr. Armah appeared on Newsbusters? He wrote a tune that appeared on BET TV called "Read a Mo F***ing Book". It was a tune that featured Mr. Armah seeming to attack the thug lifestyle and telling black kids to read a "Mo F'ing" book, brush their teeth, wear deodorant and to raise their own children, etc. It raised quite a stir last year. Washington Post Yawns at 'Tame' Song 'Fascist Christ'Rock musician Todd Rundgren hasn't been prominent as a performer since the 1970s, but his Sunday concert at the Birchmere here in MRC's hometown of Alexandria drew a mixed review in the Washington Post. Tuesday's review by Stephen Brookes ended with this strange paragraph about Rundgren's failure to offend people:
Since when is a song viciously attacking American Christians as fascists considered "tame" and inoffensive? The only arguments in the Post's favor: The song is old (from 1993, hardly the zenith of Christian conservatism), and it's a very lame white rap song. Live Earth II: The Concert to Honor Nobel Laureate Al Gore
As if the failure of Al Gore's Live Earth concerts in July wasn't enough, a musical fiesta is being prepared to honor the new Nobel Laureate after he receives his Peace prize in December. I don't know about you, but I can't wait! As hysterically announced by Star Pulse Wednesday (h/t Ecorazzi, emphasis added): ‘70s Rockers Turn to YouTube to Renew Nuclear Energy Protest"Stop, hey, what's that sound?" Nuclear power getting put down. Again. In 1979, musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, and Jackson Browne were hailed "the energy source everyone had been looking for" to fight against nuclear power. The result of their support was termed a "chain reaction." The group has returned, picking up where it left off nearly 30 years ago. And what better to bridge the gap into the new millennium than YouTube. (Video after the break)
New Eagles Album: Slamming America ThroughoutWith Update- Welcome Wonkette Readers
Pacifica Radio Plays 9-11 Truther Rapper Between SegmentsThe radical-left Pacifica Foundation's radio stations -- in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington, and New York -- draw about a million dollars a year in federal grants through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. What they put on the air can be some pretty strange brew. On Friday's "Democracy Now" show -- as they led into a discussion of how viciously demagogic and racist were the opponents of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants -- a rapper blaming the 9-11 attacks as government-detonated was aired. It caught my attention because you seldom hear the words "popping and locking" followed by "Wolfowitz doctrine." The rapper is named Immortal Technique. The song is "Underground Railroad Freestyle," and the lyrics were like this: Rappers Testify Before Congress as Lawmakers Examine Lyrics
Bland WashPost Headline Whitewashes Radical Rocker's Death Wish for BushEven when the Washington Post is covering a Marxist, they have trouble putting an ideological label in the headline. On the front page of Monday’s Style section is a profile of Marxist rock guitarist Tom Morello, but the headline was bland: "Tom Morello, on Tour and on Message: Folk-Rock’s Nightwatchman Plays True to His Roots." Inside, the headline was simply "Tom Morello, Refocusing His Political Rage." Neither headline reflected that he prayed for President Bush’s death:
So why isn’t that death-wish directly reflected in the headline, instead of simply being vaguely "On Message" with "Rage"? Rockers in Rolling Stone Hail the Goracle, Trash Rise of 'Idiots' to 'Extreme Power'Don’t look now, but rock musicians are calling the president an idiot again. Rolling Stone’s latest issue is completely obsessed with promoting Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts, and includes interviews with rockers predictably trashing wars for oil and hailing the Goracle. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd stood out with the Bush-bashing:
WashPost Offers Kinder, Gentler Take on Less Political Toby Keith
Take this November 5, 2003, review by Bill Friskics-Warren, which front-loads a begrudgingly positive review with the obligatory "I can't stand this guy's politics, but he's a damn fine musician" lede: Bob Dylan Tells Rolling Stone: "Where's the Global Warming? It's Freezing Here."In the new 40th Anniversary Edition of Rolling Stone magazine, Editor Jann Wenner asks rocker-icon Bob Dylan, "Do you worry about global warming?" and Dylan responds: "Where's the global warming? It's freezing here." The point is that Dylan was half-serious and questioning Wenner's liberal assumptions, as were a number of other 1960s rock icons who gave some startlingly sober answers to the hyper-idealized drivel regurgitated by Wenner and other questioners. (Hat tip to Cincinnati.com.) When asked his views about the 1960s, Director Steven Spielberg replied, "Just narcissism, a collective and personal narcissism." Military BansYouTube, MySpace, MTV and Other High-Trafficked Sites
Updates at bottom: I want my MTV! Somewhere a soldier or sailor in Iraq or Afghanistan is probably thinking that today. According to the AP, on May 14, the Department of Defense blocked “worldwide” the US troops who use its networks and computers from accessing 12 popular websites that include, YouTube, MTV, MySpace, Blackplanet and Photobucket. The Defense Deparmene which the DoD said“take up a large amount of bandwidth, and others that can open up department computers to hackers and viruses.” (emphasis mine throughout) US Forces Korea Commander (USFK) Gen. B.B. Bell explained in a memo sent out Friday that the new policy will not impact the military's ability to send and receive email, but the “Department of Defense has a growing concern regarding our unclassified DoD Internet, known as the NIPRNET. The Commander of DoD's Joint Task Force, Global Network Operations has noted a significant increase in the use of DoD network resources tied up by individuals visiting certain recreational Internet sites.” The AP delved into some of the issues involved: Bozell: Rap Mogul Has A Plan for Post-Imus Broadcast StandardsBrent Bozell's culture column this week follows up on how the world of rap music will change in the wake of Don Imus getting canned for his rapper's language against the Rutgers women's basketball team. Russell Simmons, one of the founders of Def Jam Records, made waves by endorsing some voluntary steps toward better self-control:
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