AdAge.com reports: "During a Senate hearing on radio consolidation, senators grilled a radio industry executive about his decision to pull songs by the country band the Dixie Chicks from the air for a month... The committee's chairman, John McCain, R-Ariz., sharply questioned Cumulus Media CEO Lewis W. Dickey Jr. if he felt his decision ban the Dixie Chicks from all of Cumulus' country music stations demonstrated the political danger present in having too few owners of the nation's media... Sen. McCain said that while individual stations have the right to pull songs, the decision by Cumulus (as well as by another media company, Cox Communications) to pull songs chainwide from its stations was a 'total contradiction' of statements made by media executives that they were serving local markets. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., suggested Mr. Dickey's decision smacked of Nazism and McCarthyism rather than of free speech."

"There's no reason to interpret the hostile response that followed Maines's anti-war comments as the spontaneous reaction of an outraged country audience. In fact, the attack on the Dixie Chicks was a political maneuver no less calculated than the Watergate break-in. According to a story from americannewsreel.com sent to RRC by former Reprise president Howie Klein, 'Phone calls originating from Republican Party headquarters in Washington went out to country stations, urging them to remove the Chicks from their playlists. The 'alternative concert' [to the Dixie Chicks' tour opener] is actually the work of the South Carolina Republican Party and party officials are helping promote the concert. We received a call from 'Gallagher's Army,' urging us to support the alternative concert. Caller ID backtraced the call to South Carolina GOP headquarters.'"

From RushLimbaughOnline.com: "In his continued attack on the Dixie Chicks, Rush Limbaugh furthered his effort to marginalize the voice of opposition. Rush describes himself as the defender or freedom however attacking people for their views is the basis of fascism. Rush spent 1 hour on Thurday demagoging the Dixie Chicks with distortion and innuendo."

Florida Today reports: "That breeze you feel is courtesy of a sigh of relief echoed from the handlers of the Dixie Chicks as the 'there's-no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity' rule plays out once again. Rest assured that a girl group singer's off-the-cuff remarks and ensuing success will fuel plenty of jingoistic rants to keep group-thinkers' proverbial prayers and guns aimed at anyone who dares utter dissent. Let's see. Tonight's concert at Orlando's T.D. Waterhouse is sold out. Chicks' 6 million-selling CD 'Home' only temporarily fell out of the No. 1 position on the country charts, reclaiming the top spot two weeks after Chick Natalie Maines' anti-Bush, anti-war remarks. This week, the CD nestles at No. 2... However, such corporate -- and public -- McCarthyism does further expose the limits now placed on certain American freedoms, in this case, freedom of speech. As of Thursday, WHKR still has no plans to play the Chicks' music, despite the ban lift."

CNN reports: "Opening their first concert tour in the United States since lead singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush, the Dixie Chicks played to a sold-out arena and thunderous applause Thursday night."

"The Dixie Chicks appear nude on the cover of a... showbiz magazine in a defiant answer to a backlash over their opposition to the war in Iraq. The New York Post newspaper yersterday carried a reproduction of the Entertainment Weekly magazine picture in which the Grammy-award winning women wore only contradictory slogans painted on their bodies, including 'Opinionated', 'Traitors', 'Saddam's Angels', 'Dixie Sluts' and 'Proud Americans'... Maines, who was interviewed with Maguire and Robison, said despite telling the London audience she was 'ashamed the p-resident of the United States is from Texas', she did not feel that way. 'No, I'm not truly embarrassed that, you know, President [sic] Bush is from my state, that's not really what I care about,' she said. 'I felt like there was a lack of compassion every time I saw Bush talking about this. I honestly felt a lack of compassion for people that are questioning this (war), for the people that are about to die for this on both sides."

"The Dixie Chicks are drawing criticism from country music fans for remarks singer Natalie Maines made about Resident George W. Bush during a recent performance in London. Maines told the audience earlier this week, 'Just so you know, we're ashamed the president [sic] of the United States is from Texas. Angry phone calls flooded Nashville radio station WKDF-FM on Thursday, some demanding a boycott of the Texas trio's music. The group released a statement saying they've been overseas for several weeks and 'the anti-American sentiment that has unfolded here is astounding. While we support our troops, there is nothing more frightening than the notion of going to war with Iraq and the prospect of all the innocent lives that will be lost.'" Note: A huge rightwing campaign against them forced them to apologize. Let them know many people support them!