STEPFORD CHICK:

Is Dixie Chicks protest a conspiracy? (John Kiesewetter, 3/18/03, The Cincinnati Enquirer)

Are the Dixie Chicks victims of a right-wing conspiracy?

That's what their manager, Simon Renshaw, has told country music stations being pressured to drop the Chicks' music after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush last week.

In an e-mail to stations distributed by Sony Music, their label, Renshaw says the protest has been orchestrated by the Free Republic (www.freerepublic.com) , a Web site "for independent, grassroots conservative, " according to founder Jim Robinson of Fresno, Calif. The Web site also alleges that recent anti-war protests are "communist-organized demonstrations."

"Your company is being targeted by a radical right-wing online forum," Renshaw says in the e-mail. "You are being `Freeped,' which is the code word for an organized e-mail/telephone effort attempting to solicit a desired response."

On March 10, Maines told a London audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

As a member in good standing of the VRWC, I can truthfully testify that, though we are at work on the technology, we do not yet have operational fembots capable of impersonating Natalie Maines. The stupid things she said were her own thoughts, not a function of any conspiracy. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 20, 2003 2:22 PM