Damn liberal media strikes again… Or does it?

The Dixie Chicks, pariahs in many circles for an off-hand comment about US president Bush, are in the middle of yet another controversy. Ads for Shut Up & Sing, a doc about the Chicks being distributed by The Weinstein Company, are reportedly being refused by several American networks because of their political content. USA Today explains that while CBS has agreed to air the ad, ABC and Fox have yet to decide, while the CE and NBC have rejected it. Whether or not the whole controversy is an intentional move by the Weinsteins to fan media flames in an effort to hype the release is impossible to know, but the flap has bought the film enormous amounts of free mainstream press. (For more on the film and codirector Barbara Kopple, see Shut Up and Film on page 45.)