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ClearChannel Plays It Safe
mertzman writes: "Rather than wait for the government assaults on civil liberties to reach full steam, ClearChannel, one of the nation's largest radio networks, has decided to do some censorship on their own! According to F***edCompany, ClearChannel has created a list of banned songs with "questionable content" in light of the recent tragedies. Stuff ranging from Drowning Pool's "Bodies" to Nena's anti-war hit "99 Red Balloons" have made their list." ClearChannel owns many radio stations, so this probably affects you. Update: 09/18 18:30 GMT by M : The San Francisco Chronicle has more on this - ClearChannel says it isn't an official mandate, just some sort of internal memo circulating. Update: 09/18 23:18 PM GMT by T : Fuzzy points out that "snopes.com has an explanation of the ClearChannel hoax. ClearChannel has also sent out a press release saying they have released no such list."
There are songs that people who were involved in this tragedy (and that is many of us, all over this country) are not going to want to hear in the coming months. For a radio station to list these songs out and say 'you know, these might cause hurt and anguish to some of our listeners, so maybe we shouldn't play them' is absolutely a great call, and I commend them for it. To those of you who can't tell the difference between censorship and taste- grow up, or even better- go to downtown NYC and play these songs on a boombox. See how long it is before someone beats some sense into you for re-opening their wounds and pouring salt into them.
IAAL,BIANLY
Bah to it all. Why can't people just realize that human adults censor what is inputed in to their brains to begin with? I mean, come on! How does censoring music that has some relation to the NYC bombing help anything at all? Those people died for certain liberties and rights sort to speak- why take away what they died for just to try to soften the impact that they died?!!
If I died in a terrorist bombing in the United States, the supposed country of freedom, I would be rather offended that this country of freedom that I died in is now restricting it.
They took away the second amendment, but I didn't complain since I had no guns.
They took away the fifth amendment, but I didn't complain since I had nothing to fear from the courts.
They took away the first amendment, and I couldn't complain.
--- Ãther SPOON!
Hey, they own those stations, so they have a right to choose what to play. If they think something is in bad taste, the won't play it. That's not censorship that's choice. The government hasn't told them not to play questionable songs, they decided it was in their best interest as a business or maybe in their interest as humans. This is not censorship this is a business esercising it's freedom to choose to do what it wants.
As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
The list to me reads like some bloody good rock music. Sabbath, Floyd, Queen etc. Dare I be so cynical as to say that this is just a lame attempt for stations to push the latest manufactured crap?
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
In good taste, please stop hanging signs of Christianity up all over the place. No more open prayers... etc... Stop assaulting me with unbridled patriotism. It's all free speech and so long as it doesn't stand a very good chance of instigating a violence, just let it be.
This Song is ANTI terrorism and was originally written about an act of terrorism.
I mean the lyrics go "I cant believe the news today" and continue "How long must we sing this song?"
Its the perfect song to be the Anthem of the whole anti terrorism campaign.
It appears they are just stopping playing everything that could possibly remind people of the whole event. Songs about war,terrorism,suicide and fire. Even when the majority of these songs are against these things.
Will they ban wacko and spears duet which they are recording to raise money for the relief efforts as it will remind people as well?
On the other hand, if you could add {sarcasm} any NSYNCH song to the list I'd be much abliged. Not that it has questionable lyrics, I just don't want to hear it on the radio{/sarcasm}.
This is disgusting. If we're going to have a war, let's have it, but for crying out loud, let's not insist on sanitizing it as well. Either we've got to turn our minds from this situation in an effort to heal (in which case the songs dealing with guns and fire can go, but the anti-war songs must stay; not only stay, but be played repeatedly) OR we've got to stay mindful of our pain and steel our resolve to fight (in which case the guns and fire songs stay and the anti-war songs go). It doesn't make sense to avoid reminding us of the tragedy while *also* calling us to battle.
Furthermore, the ENTIRE conflict is about freedom and liberty. This censorship (and yes, if the primary broadcast company has a list of songs that affiliates are not allowed to play, that *does* constitute censorship) is against everything that we stand for. If large portions of certain communities are offended by some or all of these songs, let them speak out to their local broadcasters. Don't blanket the rest of us with this silly and misguided propaganda disguised as "sensitivity".
I, for one, will be tuning into the public radio. A source of objective and high-quality news and information, and a lone voice in the wild for FREEDOM!!!
I noticed in the list: "All Rage Against The Machine songs"
you've got to be kidding me. This seems like blind censorship to me. I'm doubtful they've listened to all of Rage's songs.
"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Jack Nicholson
I think that'll only be the beginning of words that will be banned from use on the air by Clear Channel. Soon things will not be "amazing," but rather "double interesting," or for more emphasis, "double double interesting." News will not be "shocking," but rather "double arousing." I think you get my drift.
Do you think the terrorists had a problem with American Culture? It's nice that we're doing away with it, so we don't make anyone angry.
My Karma was at 49, then they switched to words. All that work for nothing!
The songs are not going to be banned for all-time they are just being put up for awhile. If will not affect anyone's lives that they can't get their fix of Megadeth or Metallica. However, I do see the rationale of postponing the playlist at this juncture. The last thing I would want is to have a member of a survivor's family turn on the radio and hear "Stairway to Heaven" and breakdown in tears because they had a family member in the WTC. I don't believe its censorship, I do believe its a conscious decision to think about possible listeners. If you like the songs then go buy/download them and play them to your heart's content. We sometimes forget that its not about just our rights but about the rights of others as well.
HT
The song starts of:
Standing at the beach with a gun in my hand
Staring at the sea, staring at the sand.
Whatever I choose it amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing
I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm a stranger
Killing an Arab
Probably just an oversight from ClearChannel.
I have a photographic memory for numbers. I know almost a hundred of them.
No. Your repeated postings seem to indicate an inability to differentiate between "censorship of the American public as a whole" (for example, the FCC declaring that you can't show bare breasts on broadcast television) and "censorship by a corporate entity of its own content" (for example, Fox Family channel voluntarily censoring the word "damn" as part of the more family friendly programming they want to produce).
Now, just because something isn't government censorship doesn't mean it's not censorship. However, just because something isn't government censorship doesn't mean it's a good thing. It also doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Each case must be examined on its own merits. Also, it being a bad thing is not synonymous with illegal. For example, if a given publisher chose to stop carrying stories on Linux, that wouldn't be illegal (as far as I know), but it would certainly be a bad thing. They would receive certainly criticism (rightfully so, IMO) for their non-illegal censorship.
Of course all that being said, things get a little more interesting. Clear Channel isn't on equal footing with other companies. Like Microsoft, they enjoy a rather large market share. Furthermore, they've been granted the right to use a limited, public resource (part of the radio spectrum) by the government. This places there actions under much greater scrutiny. Unlike, say, the widget manufacturing industry, a new-comer can't decide to pop into the radio market and start playing the songs in question. As such, their situation is closer to government censorship. However, regardless, their overall actions are still censorship and should be scrutinized by consumers.
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenier
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go...
For me, the last part of the song sums up a lot of the feelings I've had during this tragedy. Despite all the violence and senselessness, something fragile and beautiful survives: the spirit of New Yorkers, the heroism of the emergency crews, the coming together of people all over the world. These things survive.
You know, I recently had a bad experience with a girl. Being very musically oriented, I associated quite a bit of music with this girl (even went so far as to compile two CDs worth of music that made me think about her for her birthday.)
I don't talk to her very much now, and hearing some of that same music is, to me, now unbearable. In particular, the local station here plays "Drops of Jupiter" by Train, which I associate with her, a lot. You know what I do? I don't demand that the station stop playing the song, I just turn the volume on my radio down until the song is over.
Now, I have no problem with being sensitive to the people who've been vicitmized by this tragedy, but I don't think any of them are really worrying about what's being played on the radio right now. And they surely haven't lost their ability to turn their volume down.
Also, who told these guys at ClearChannel what songs would offend the victims of 9/11/01? "Imagine"? "What A Wonderful World"? "New York, New York"? "Sunday Bloody Sunday"? "Tuesday's Gone"? Hell, I've listened to some of those songs in the past week, along with others on the list that I've failed to mention. None of them have made me overtly think about the tragedy (it's been at the back of my head the entire time.) And some of them were genuinely uplifting.
How about letting the victims decide what they want to hear, instead of telling them "No, we think this song will be bad for you, so we're not going to let you listen to it."? ClearChannel could actually be making it worse for some people who listen to music for a sort of emotional release.
Yet more evidence that censorship always backfires...