The Dixie Chicks, Pink, Kanye West and the Politics of Media

On March 10th, 2003, Natalie Maines from The Dixie Chicks spoke out against George W. Bush at a concert in London, England. She told the crowd: "Just so you know, we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." The crowd in London cheered, because they do not like the president and they do not support the war. The fact that she said this went all over the London Press which then lead to the American Press, and then it all began. The Dixie Chicks’ songs were pulled off the radio and radio stations were receiving hate letters towards the band. The hate mail Natalie and her band mates received was unbelievable. The Dixies went from the peak of their career to hitting rock bottom in a matter of months. America showed a lot of support for George Bush during this time, as troops just recently had gone to war.
In August 2005, Kanye West made the comment "George Bush doesn’t care about black people" during NBC’s Hurricane Katrina fundraiser. This incident received a lot of coverage at the time, but was quickly forgotten. Although his comment was much more controversial, his career didn’t suffer, unlike The Dixie Chicks.
In Pink’s new song, "Mr. President", she speaks out against George Bush, but has often been praised by critics for her honest subject matter. She has, however, been unofficially banned from radio stations in the U.S. but not even close to the extent of The Dixie Chicks.
These three situations were all handled completely different by the media. The Dixie Chicks had the perfect image before Natalie’s statement. They were the all American "girls-next-door" and had the persona of very sweet and innocent. When they made that comment it was completely unexpected from them. The Dixie Chicks spoke out against their country??!! Also the fact that they said this in another country, and not their own, made a lot of people mad. The media used all kinds of words such as: traitors, ‘dixie sluts’, big mouths etc. Kanye West on the other hand, has always been known as opinionated and ranting on about things he believes are true but that aren’t necessarily. When he made that comment people were upset, but just considered it another one of Kanye West’s stupid notions. It was nothing out of the ordinary for him, and besides, people had much bigger things on their minds dealing with post- Hurricane Katrina. Also by this time, two years after The Dixie Chicks comments, Bush had lost some of his ratings and was not as popular. When Pink came out with her new song about the President, people were glad that someone was speaking out about the tragedy that was going on. This was four years after The Dixie Chicks’ comments and Bush had lost so much respect by this time. Pink has always been so out-spoken, that most people were not surprised by the lyrics of this song. She was speaking the truth and people knew it, there was no point in acting outraged.
As for how the media handled these three situations, it has everything to do with timing and persona. The Dixie Chicks spoke out at the wrong time. If they were to say the same thing now the reaction would be much different.

Natalie Maines in various interviews discussing what she said about the President in London.

The live clip when Kanye West said what he did about the President.

P!ink singing her controversial song "Dear Mr. President" live.

Works Cited:
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/dixiechicks/articles/story/10464617/dixie_chicks_debut_at_number_one
http://echoblackonline.com/
http://www.rot-gelb-gruen.ch/index.php?page=Fahrschule