Since the terrorist strikes occurred three weeks ago on the East Coast, the American people have become familiar with the art of attack. Terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a plane that crashed in Pennsylvania; hatemongers have been attacking Muslims and citizens whose looks suggest Middle Eastern descent; and now the First Amendment is under attack by station directors employed by a media conglomerate called Clear Channel Communications.
Clear Channel owns approximately 1,170 radio stations in the United States and reaches more than 110 million listeners. The company was accused of censorship in the New York Times; however, the Clear Channel denies any First Amendment violations. According to Clear Channel, station directors sent to member stations a list of 150 songs they thought were inappropriate and could offend some listeners in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks. Other members of the media, including the Emerald editorial board, think this suggested blacklist smacks of overt censorship under the guise of sensitivity.
Some of the songs on the banned list were seemingly harmless tunes such as John Lennon’s “Imagine,” a song about world peace, and the Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me,” arguably a love song.
Music is interpretive by nature, and we teeter on dangerous ground as a society when we allow the infiltration of censorship even on the airwaves. Potentially any song that happened to be playing on the radio the morning of the attacks could bring back memories for listeners. It is absolutely ludicrous to censor based on content in any form, especially if the intent is to protect listeners from remembering the tragedy.
By blacklisting potentially offensive songs, station directors are also launching an attack on the intelligence of millions of listeners. After all, if a listener doesn’t like the music, he or she can simply change the channel.