From: ray@unisql.UUCP (Ray Shea)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc
Subject: Re: New Negativland News
Date: 21 Jan 93 16:48:24 GMT
Organization: UniSQL, Inc., Austin, Texas, USA

In article <1jlgpqINNdcm@lynx.unm.edu> lazlo@triton.unm.edu (Lazlo Nibble) writes:
>> I don't have any problem with boycotts, but I think any supposedly
>> free-thinking college radio station who thinks censorship is a valid
>> means to *anything* is not putting their money where their mouth is.
>
>What "censorship?"  A college station not playing stuff by SST because
>Greg Ginn is a jerk is no more censorship than a college station not
>playing "Achy Breaky Heart" because it's the most inane #1 in over a
>decade.  Nobody's being prevented from hearing the stuff, they're just not
>going to hear it on that particular station.

Pay attention, Laz.  I didn't call it censorship, the person from the station
in question called it censorship -- then defended it by saying it's "for 
a purpose".  I have a problem with anyone thinking censorship is OK if it's
"for a purpose".

>It's not censorship if someone says you can't play how you like with their
>toys.  It's only censorship if they say you can't play how you like with
>*yours*.

I wonder if every DJ at the station agrees with the policy.  Or was it handed
down from on high by the music director?  If I was working at a station and
the MD came in and pulled all records of a certain artist or label for 
political reasons, I'd call it censorship.

>Maybe you haven't been keeping up, Ray.  

I did say exactly that.  Negativland and SST haven't been real high on my 
list of priorities for quite some time now.

>The Island lawsuit was settled out
>of court well over a year ago -- it's SST that's suing Negativland now.  

Right, but I was under the impression they were doing that because they got
taken to the cleaners by Island, and they want some of their money back from
Negativland.  I think it's a shitty attitude...if you put a record out on your
label, you should be prepared to accept the consequences.  But if Island hadn't
sued SST, do you think any of this would be going on?

>SST makes a very public point of claiming to be an alternative to the
>big-business corporate-rock infrastructure of the modern record industry,
>while the way they do business demonstrates that they're anything but.  The
>fact that other labels do the same thing doesn't mean that anyone should
>pass up an opportunity to give SST a good, solid kick in the pants for it.

So it's OK to play records from MCA or Sony, because they *admit* that they're
only in it for the money, but stations shouldn't play records from SST because
they're less honest about their intentions?

>> Have you talked to Greg Ginn about this?  How about interviewing him
>> about it, either taped or better, live on the air.  Let the listeners
>> have at him, and let him defend himself.
>
>A perfectly sensible idea, which I'd love to see happen.  Ginn knows better
>than to *let* it, of course.  And as past events have already proven,
>anyone who publicly questions SST's policies towards the bands on the label
>(like, maybe, by circulating a letter about those policies among people
>who've been affected by them, or by broadcasting a tape-cart explaining the
>controversy) is likely to find themselves on the recieving end of a legal
>broadside from Ginn's lawyers.  

If the station just quietly stops adding new SST records, and nobody knows
about it, it's a completely meaningless gesture, so why even bother?  I'm
sure Greg Ginn could give two shits about non-commercial airplay in Atlanta.
Now *sales* in Atlanta is another story, and if the station made this a big
news item, they could conceivably affect sales.  Of course, they're also 
gonna hurt their local indie record shops in the process.  So much for 
anti-corporate unity.

>I don't know too many college stations
>that can afford to take that risk, which is no doubt what Ginn has in mind.

The only thing he can get them on is libel...I really don't think he's got
the funds to take on that many bands and *still* start slinging libel suits
around...especially if he's not selling any more records.

And I still wonder if stations are gonna pull *all* SST records, or just
not add any new ones?  SST has been putting out the bread & butter music
of college radio for almost a decade now...that's gonna be a big chunk of
vinyl missing from the stacks.


-- 
Ray Shea                                      
UniSQL, Inc.                             Sometimes I feel like a blue dog.
unisql!ray@cs.utexas.edu                                     -- The Blue Dog
DoD #0372 -- Team Twinkie -- '88 Hawk NT650
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc