I had basically the same reaction when I heard that "Imagine" was on the list. It reminded me of an episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati" where the same song was banned from the WKRP playlist.
I never did hear that any of this was a government edict; it totally originated with the radio stations and their ownership/management. That's a big differece. We still have Constitutionally guaranteed free speech (with a few notable exceptions) but what private parties do is their own business. If a disk jockey or station manager had played one of those songs, he probably wouldn't have gone to jail or been fined, but he might have lost his job. It's just self-censorship, that's all. Probably not too bright, but that's all it is.
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Banned music
Date: 2001-10-02 11:45 am (UTC)I never did hear that any of this was a government edict; it totally originated with the radio stations and their ownership/management. That's a big differece. We still have Constitutionally guaranteed free speech (with a few notable exceptions) but what private parties do is their own business. If a disk jockey or station manager had played one of those songs, he probably wouldn't have gone to jail or been fined, but he might have lost his job. It's just self-censorship, that's all. Probably not too bright, but that's all it is.