NYT Editorial: Desperadoes

[kskiska]

Something went awry at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas last Saturday night. Linda Ronstadt did what she has done at several concerts across the country this summer. She dedicated the song "Desperado"- an encore - to Michael Moore and urged members of the audience to go see his new movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Elsewhere, audiences have reacted to the mention of Mr. Moore by cheering, booing, walking out and sometimes glaring at one another in parking lots. At the Aladdin, a few audience members tore down posters, threw drinks and demanded their money back. According to one person who was present - William Timmins, the Aladdin's president - it was "a very ugly scene." Mr. Timmins promptly made it even uglier. He had Ms. Ronstadt ejected from the premises.

This behavior assumes that Ms. Ronstadt had no right to express a political opinion from the stage. It implies - for some members of the audience at least - that there is a philosophical contract that says an artist must entertain an audience only in the ways that audience sees fit. It argues, in fact, that an artist like Ms. Ronstadt does not have the same rights as everyone else.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/07/21/opinion/21wed4.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. We are slipping into a Brown Shirt Society.....Nov/Dec 2000

was the start...

[punpirate]

2. Have no fear...

... everything will return to normal--they'll have Pat Boone headlining next week. Expect another Alladin/Planet Hollywood bankruptcy soon. :P

[JSJ]

3. timmons is a classless repub thug- past vegas thugs would have...

...been outraged over his behavior.

[monchie]

4. Mr. Timmins' account of what happened has been disputed.

What it looks like is that Mr. Timmins exaggerated what happened, according to interviews with audience members in the local Las Vegas media. I don't think there was even one interviewee who supported Timmins' version of the story.

Yes, in reaction to her dedication, there were boos--and there was applause as well--but it all quieted down rather quickly and she did her encore without further incident. Who knows--maybe a few ppl did walk out, but apparently not enough to be noticed by their fellow audience members.

I have a sneaky feeling that if, say, Pat Boone dedicated a song to the Shrub, and some audience members created "an ugly scene," Mr. Boone wouldn't have been ejected from the premises. More likely, Mr. Timmins would've had the audience members ejected from the Alladin.