And again - it's not CBS's responsibility to air DiFranco and/or anything she cares to perform. She was to be a guest on a commercial NON-'public awareness' show where the material is slanted to meet what the producers feel to be their target audiences' likes.

Criticizing Letterman's staff for not letting DiFranco play seems nearly as pointless as criticizing the "Night at the Pops" for not allowing Motley Crue to render full symphonic orchestrations of "Shout at the Devil".

An artistic/commercial decision was reached. They were under no more obligation to let her play then they were obligated to ask the people they replaced her with.

Wider arguments about the "show's responsibility" to the public are specious in that they don't address the reality of this situation. Yes, in a perfect world, ALL shows would have a 'social conscience'. Well, ain't a perfect world in sight from where I'm sitting, and CBS/Letterman were perfectly within their rights.

If you're a DiFranco fan, my apologies. Chances are you'll see her somewhere else. To the rest of us who really couldn't care where she plays or what she sings, why does this matter?

Now - if Worldwide Pants establishes a monopoly on all worldwide broadcasting and then refuses to let anyone play anywhere in the world without their express permission, we can start talking about 'monopolies' and 'creative strangleholds' and actually MEAN something.

M