Elites, Masses, and Media Blacklists: The Dixie Chicks Controversy"

Several studies have shown the influenceofownership on media content in routine contexts, but none hasquantitatively testedit in the context ofa crisis. Recentlythe country musicians the Dixie Chicks were blacklisted from the radio for criticizing the president in wartime. I use this event to test the role of media ownership in a crisis. Through analyzingairplay from a nationalsampleofradio stations, thispaper finds that contrary to prominent allegations grounded in the political economy tradition of media sociology, this backlash did not comefrom ownersof large chains. Rather, I find that opposition to the Dixie Chicks represents grassroots conservative sentiment, whichmay beexacerbated by the ideological connotations of countrymusic or tempered by tolerance for dissent. The Dixie Chicks controversy has its roots on March 10, 2003, when the group performed at the London nightclub, Shepherd's Bush Empire. On March 12 the British newspaper The Guardian published a brief, three-star review of the concert, approvingly noting that in a "profoundly punk rock " moment, lead singer Natalie Maines told the audience, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas " (Clarke 2003). The remark reached American country music fans a few hours later with a post to the small Web site, countrynation.com, which had been following the European press coverage of the Dixie Chicks tour. That evening the article was copied in a post entitled "Dixie Chick Tea Party- dump Lipton tea for sponsoring anti-American Chicks! " to the internet discussion group rec.music.country.western.&apos