<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by JessicaN: I have to admit, I think it's funny that her audience had such a strong reaction to her promotion of Moore's movie. I'm guessing the people paid to be entertained with music, not her political views. If she angered the audience to a great extent, then management has every right to remove her--their purpose to a) make money and to do so by b) catering to what the patrons want. It isn't nice, but it's an effective way to make sure entertainers stick to the advertised fare.<p>Having said that, I'm not sure why such a big deal was made of the situation. Maybe it's because I'm still a student, but I'm not sure why this is a newsworthy event.<hr></blockquote><p>I like opinionated musicians and performers and oftentimes it is an intrinsic part of the act - can you imagine Henry Rollins, Andrew Eldritch, Cathal Coughlan or Jello Biafra keeping politics out of their shows?<p>It's even more amusing when soft-rock and MOR musicians come out of the closet as outspoken individuals; lazy and complacent audiences expecting simple "entertainment" need to be jolted out of their comatose state. The above sounds like the reaction to Suicide at punk clubs in 1977.<p>Anyway, it's "important" (or at least newsworthy) because of of the forthcoming presidential election. The presentation of the story is pure opinion, and it fits into a mould pioneered by right-wing radio pundits years ago - "Nasty members of the showbiz/Hollywood liberal elite" are out of touch with ordinary "folks".<p>There's nothing wrong with that opinion, I just happen to think that it's wrong. The problem is, it is opinion, not news. The entire story is constructed in a one-sided manner, let alone that closing sentence. For example, this Timmins character is the only person quoted first-hand in the story. Tradition would dictate the reporter should have sought an opinion from a person not offended by Ronstadt's comments. Furthermore, Timmins seems to have a gift for hyperbole which is an amazing coincidence, as it allows the reporter to attribute the extreme reaction to someone other than him/herself.<p>Then we come to this wonderful construction, "some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater". Some is a rather vague figure and could be anything from two to 4,499 people. I suspect the number was rather closer to two, otherwise some would have become "a third", "half" or "three quarters".<p>Jason...<p>[ July 20, 2004: Message edited by: Jason Walsh ]<p>[ July 20, 2004: Message edited by: Jason Walsh ]<p>[ July 20, 2004: Message edited by: Jason Walsh ]</p>
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