The "Ronstadt Affair"

I'm not sure that's the best term for it.  But that's the one used by Andrew Gumbel in this piece:  America sings a new song of celebrity censorship Independent (UK) 07/21/04.

This piece addresses a point raised by Patrick of Patrick's Place both at his blog and in the comments by my first post on the Ronstadt expulsion from the Aladdin.  Patrick's point being, if I understand it correctly, that Linda should have somehow given advance notice that she would be dedicating a song to Michael Moore.  Gumbel:

The Aladdin quickly sought to deny that it was suppressing anybody's rights. "It did not come down to the statements she had said, per se," a spokeswoman said. "It's about using our venue for political commentary versus being an entertainer. She was hired to entertain, not to preach."

That explanation, in turn, seems a little disingenuous, since Ms Ronstadt has been dedicating Desperado to Mr Moore throughout her current tour and announced the fact in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal published last Friday, the day before her concert: "They say the country is evenly divided, and boy is that true. One half of the audience cheers and the other half boos," she said.

She added: "I don't understand this country sometimes and I really fear for it. The government is making everybody in the world hate us, including the people that used to be our friends."

Besides her music, Ms Ronstadt's political views are probably the best-known thing about her. In the 1970s she had a much-publicized romance with Jerry Brown, the liberal governor of California who went on to make two unsuccessful runs for the presidency. In a show in San Diego on Sunday night, she made overt references to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent attacks on "girlie men" in the state legislature. Her dedication to Michael Moore - which she clearly has no intention of dropping - split her audience in two but caused no undue ructions, according to an account in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Gumbel's article also reports on a different version of what actually occurred that the AP wire story reported:

Not everyone present agreed with Mr Timmins' account, however. Paula Francis, a news anchor on a local television station, told the Las Vegas Review Journal that her experience of the concert was quite different.

"I was so stunned to read in the newspaper that anyone had a negative reaction," she said. "Everyone who was leaving when I was leaving was just thrilled. They thought it was a good concert." At the moment of the Michael Moore dedication, she said, "there were loud boos and there was quite a bit of applause. But everyone calmed down right away and seemed to enjoy the rest of the encore."

It's possible that the news anchor may have just not seen or heard some of the reported rowdiness that was reported by AP, which seems odd but not implausible if she were seated near the front and the rowdiness happened more in the back or the lobby area outside the concert hall.

In that case, though, the Aladdin president's action in kicking her out would be even more ridiculous, because it makes even less believable the already thin justification that he was thinking of the audience's desires.  I'm curious if he made refunds to concert-goers who stayed until she came out to do an encore and dedicated it to Michael Moore.

Which reminds me, are Republicans really so thin-skinned these days they can't even stand to hear the name Michael Moore?

Moore's latest documentary is getting more fact-checking scrutiny than a controversial history best-seller would expect to receive.  But, no matter how much conservatives nitpick this or that expression or factoid in the film, Moore in his style and manner of expression is closer to what real live liberals are like than the clowns you see on Fox News pretending to be liberals.

Tom Tomorrow understands about the "sensible liberal" who's much easier to take (for Republicans!) than the normal kind.  Tom's Sensible Liberal tut-tuts over Michael Moore, too:  "I think his tactics are bad for democracy.  Doesn't he understand?  The best way to reach Americans is through ponderous essays in obscure political journals?"