by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Last weekend, I was flipping channels and landed on Letterman, and wouldn’t ya know it, his featured guest was none other than famed right-wing blowhard Bill O’Reilly. The normally apolitical and reserved Letterman actually lost his cool with O’Reilly and called the media spinster a “bonehead,” before rearing back and mentioning his guest’s head was full of “artificial facts.”

I can’t say that I was too shocked at the King of Late Night’s anger, as he merely snuggled up to his demographics and might as well have pronounced that the sky is indeed blue. Considering that the approval rating of the current U.S. administration is lower than a snake’s belly, Letterman came across like an opportunist in the middle of sweeps week, as opposed to a patriot or even a concerned citizen. Heck, you could almost see him reading the words “bonehead” off of the fuckin’ cue card.

A documentary opening at the Paramount this week, Shut Up and Sing, stars three women possessing something Letterman will never have—balls the size of their home state of Texas. The film tracks the fallout for the previously platinum-selling Dixie Chicks, whose vocalist Natalie Maines famously uttered that she was “ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas” during a show in the U.K.

This was back in 2003, when fuckwads like O’Reilly had the most popular shows on cable news. If you recall those heated times, The O’Reilly Factor was a modern-day version of the McCarthy hearings. According to O’Reilly, anybody who didn’t believe there were WMDs in Iraq and opposed the “Coalition of the Willing” were quickly labelled un-American and pro-terrorist. O’Reilly and a host of other right-wing pundits were only too eager to send a witch hunt after these three country gals and, with Bush possessing the spark of fear, O’Reilly and co. merely had to add kindling.

Now I’ll admit, the Dixie Chicks are hardly Noam Chomsky, but these three soccer moms stuck by each other’s side throughout and took it on the chin for free speech. The film covers the past three years, ending with their return to the very U.K. stage where the seemingly innocent but fateful line was uttered. Before you think that the movie is a well-timed image overhaul, know that the Dixie Chicks are still braving the backlash, routinely cancelling shows across the U.S. due to slumping ticket sales resulting from a continued lack of radio play, and still regularly get death threats, resulting in metal detectors at their shows. Their aptly-titled new record Taking the Long Way (which is fucking awesome!) doesn’t dwell too much on their exile from the radio dial, but has two songs lashing out at the lynch-mob media, marketing moguls and ignorant masses.

But it’s the single “Not Ready to Make Nice” that really smacks punk as fuck. Maines reveals that free speech ain’t always that free when she spits, “I’m not ready to back down/I’m still mad as hell/I’ve paid a price and I’ll keep paying/I’m not ready to make nice.”

After Maines’ vitriol, Letterman’s anger comes across more like a hissy fit.

IS NEW COUNTRY THE NEW PUNK? jonathan.cummins@gmail.com

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