Dixie Chicks Triumphant
Their sympathetic peers in the entertainment industry awarded The Dixie Chicks five Grammys at Sunday night's awards ceremony, including Song of the Year for "Not Ready to Make Nice,"the group'spetulant response to critics who disapproved of singer Natalie Maines' remark onstage in London in 2003: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." (Maines is from Texas.)
As of Monday morning the Times was still portraying the Dixie Chicks as free-speech martyrs, while managing to avoid mentioning the scads of free, flattering publicity in the wake of the incident and subsequent fiery comments by Maines that alienated much of her previous fanbase.
The Arts section story by Jeff Leeds and Lorne Manly, "Dixie Chicks Are the Big Winners at the Grammys," led with Chick triumphalism in the face of apparent adversity.
"After death threats, boycotts and a cold shoulder from the country music establishment, the Dixie Chicks gained sweet vindication Sunday night at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, capturing honors in all five of the categories in which they were nominated."
As Jonah Goldberg explained at National Review Online's "The Corner," on a different story: "It's bad and only a fool would think I'm somehow endorsing death threats. But it should be noted that celebrities get death threats every day (heck, even I get them from time to time). Steven Spielberg and David Letterman have gotten severe death threats against them, I don't think they deserve Oscars or Emmys for it. And I don't think the Dixie Chicks are heroes for exploiting the free-speech backlash against them by making it seem as if they are heroic martyrs of some kind."
