NBC Refuses To Run Ads For Dixie Chicks' Movie Over "Disparaging" Bush Comments...

Matt Drudge reports that NBC, in a sudden attack of conscience, has refused to run ads for "Shut Up And Sing," the rockumentary-turned-sociopolitical-exegesis that follows the Dixie Chicks before, during and after singer Natalie Maines' infamous anti-Bush statements at a London concert in 2003. According to reports, the network stated that it "cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush." Meanwhile, the CW may or may not have rejected the ads as well; while Drudge maintains that the fledgling network declined to run the ads, saying it does "not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot," Variety refuted this claim with the following statement from a CW spokesman: "That's not true. The spot was not declined. In fact, we were told they were not going to make a national spot buy on CW." Harvey Weinstein, whose production company releases the film nationwide on November 10th, made the following statement: "It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America. The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is sad and profoundly un-American."

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