smackdown

(Graphics love courtesy of darkblack!) 

The New York Times did a piece on the Dixie Chicks a couple of days ago and, in an admirable show of restraint,  managed to NOT root around in their underwear drawer or accuse them of harboring WMD’s on their tour bus. (Yay, New York Times!  There’s hope for you yet!)  For me, the money quote came on page 2, when we find out that in spite of his repeated attacks on the band, Bill O’Reilly decided that it was time to bury the hatchet.  Natalie Maines agreed that there’s a hatchet that needs burying, alright, right in the middle of Falafel Bill’s pointy skull: 

At the Time 100 party a few days before this interview, the Dixie Chicks performed "Not Ready to Make Nice." Afterward Ms. Maines recounted, the Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly — who has regularly denounced her, and whom she pointedly calls "despicable" — rushed over to greet them. "It’s like, ‘Just want to say that was great!’ " Ms. Maines said. " ‘I really like that new song.’ "

"And I go, ‘But two million tops, right?’ And he goes, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘I saw your show when you said we wouldn’t sell more than two million, tops.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, ah, well, two million’s pretty good these days, right?’ And I was just like, ‘Right, yeah. You were saying it in a positive way.’ "

Ms. Robison interrupted, laughing. "That’s what you call a no-spin zone."

Oh, Billy O’Loofah.  What part of "Not Ready to Make Nice" do you not understand? 

Never content to let anyone else have the last word, Pox News’s Vice Principal O’Reilly went on his own show to address his flip-flop on the band.  Keith Olbermann hilariously dissects the results at this clip via C&L.  

KO: Not only is Natalie Maines of the group The Dixie Chicks living up to the description in Time magazine that she was "one of those people born middle finger first", but that apology she wouldn’t accept…?  Was from Bill O’Reilly.  How could this story get any better?

Uh, well, Keith, she could have roundhouse punched him, actually.  But that’s beside the point. 

My hat is off to the Dixie Chicks.  Honestly, I was only tangentially aware of them before the furor of 2003.  I went and bought Home as a show of solidarity, and if nobody gets me Taking The Long Way for my birthday next week, I’ll go get it myself.  I am now a fan.  

And we should all take heart from this story.  In this delightful interview with Melissa Block from NPR’s All Things Considered, the Chicks talk about how frightening it was to suddenly be the target of so much unreasoning hate back at the outset of the war.  Their songs were scrubbed from the airwaves overnight.  Death threats became a part of their daily lives.  For what, in retrospect, was a fairly innocuous statement, these three talented young women from Texas found themselves squarely in the cross-hairs of the Right Wing Hate Machine.  Now, three years later, their new album is No. 1 on Amazon and the very hate-merchants who were calling for their heads are falling all over themselves trying to kiss their asses. 

Dixie Chicks, 1.  Bloviating Asshats of the Right, 0.

I love it when the good guys Chicks win.

(grahic courtesy Dark Black) 

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