BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS

Trent Reznor

Nine Inch Nails drops MTV show over image of Bush

May 27, 2005 — LOS ANGELES (Reuters)

The rock band Nine Inch Nails said on Friday it canceled plans to appear on next week's MTV Movie Awards after the network questioned the band's plans to perform in front of an image of President Bush.

The band was slated to perform "The Hand That Feeds," the first single from its latest album.

A Los Angeles Times review called the song "a warning against blind acceptance of authority, including that of a president leading his nation to war."

"We were set to perform 'The Hand That Feeds' with an unmolested, straightforward image of George W. Bush as the backdrop. Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me," Nine Inch Nails' leader Trent Reznor said in a statement posted on the band's Web site.

MTV said in a statement: "While we respect Nine Inch Nails' point of view, we were uncomfortable with their performance being built around a partisan political statement. When we discussed our discomfort with the band, their choice was to unfortunately pull out of the Movie Awards."

MTV has shown remarkably and unusually good judgment in this case.

Trent Reznor's comment indicates that he wanted to use the forum to bash Bush. He seems to think that because the planned backdrop image would be "unmolested," such a blatant partisan statement during an MTV Movie Awards broadcast would be acceptable. In other words, since the picture wouldn't depict Bush with Hitler's mustache or devil horns, it would be fair and unobjectionable.

If the broadcast was slated for NBC, the Bush backdrop no doubt would have been admissible.

Nine Inch Nails
"The Hand That Feeds" --lyrics

You're keeping in step
In the line
Got your chin held high and you feel just fine
Because you do
What you're told
But inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold

Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

What if this whole crusade's
A charade
And behind it all there's a price to be paid
For the blood
On which we dine
Justified in the name of the holy and the divine

Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

So naive
I keep holding on to what I want to believe
I can see
But I keep holding on and on and on and on

Will you bite the hand that feeds you?
Will you stay down on your knees? [8X]

With this song, Nine Inch Nails seems to have the men and women of our military in its crosshairs along with Bush. Way to support the troops!

It's ironic that in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, prior to our involvement, a person would have his tongue cut out for saying anything remotely like what NIN freely voices. The tyrannical regimes that were in power there did not allow such freedom of expression. That's changed now.

Our military has fought bravely to get the oppressed people of Afghanistan and Iraq off their knees.

Trent Reznor can't seem to grasp that.