When I first heard about the “banning” of Julia Rose from performing at the Borders store in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I immediately switched into Full Outrage mode. “What kind of idiots are running that place?” I yelled. “Bookstores are the sanctuary of the First Amendment! Banning people for political criticismis further evidence of the rise of the American fascist state!”
Hesiod‘s been talking about this, as has The Voice Unheard, and plenty of other webloggers. It’s been picked up by The Washington Post, New York Newsday, and even The Anchorage Daily News. What an outrage! Organize a boycott! Must… do… something…
Then… I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and thought before I posted. Having worked in independent bookstores as well as chain bookstores over the years, it seemed highly unlikely that a bookstore would ban any kind of speech. I checked with people I know at the local Borders store to see what their spin on the story might be. From what they tell me, and from what Borders corporate HQ is telling customers who call to complain, this whole flap has nothing to do with banning political speech. (To read the full statement by Borders HQ, click on the “More…” link at the end of this story.)
See, Borders is in business to sell books. To make the bookselling environment more appealing, they have a café, comfy chairs, book signings, story hours and, occasionally, entertainment. But the focus is always on selling books. If the entertainment is not entertaining, if it makes customers get up and leave the store, if it’s bad enough to motivate customers to fill out comment cards with complaints…
Imagine you own a bar. You make money by selling drinks. You hire a band with a good reputation to bring people in, hoping that entertained customers will stay a while and buy drinks. Suppose the band you’ve booked not only doesn’t bring people in to your bar, but motivates people to leave. Would you book that band again?
I wouldn’t. And neither would Banzai! Terror, a weblogger who works at the Fredericksburg Borders and actually has some first-hand information on Ms. Rose’s performance. As he says:
…my store has been accused of ‘banning’ this singer from performing at our store based on a single stupid unfunny comment that she made comparing Bush43′s legs to chicken legs. This is not the case at all. She was asked not to return to torture our customers anymore with her non-lively banter and non-compelling music. People were standing up and leaving her performance! The asses in the seats are the reason we have music in our cafe in the first place! Dammit, I am a champion of Free Speech, I have the fucking First Amendment to the right there, permanently placed to thumb my nose at the degredation of our civil liberties put forth as national security by the aforementioned Bush43 and his evil band of merry, merry men…
Strange. We’re always going off on those “fair and balanced” news sources for their one-sided, non fact-based coverage of the issues. How many of the voices raised in anger at Borders took a second to ask for their side of the story?
(Credit where credit is due: Hesiod has posted Border’s response on his blog.)
This is the full statement from Dan Fromme, the Borders Regional Marketing Manager for the Mid-Atlantic Region with Borders’ response to the furor over Julia Rose’s performance at the Fredericksburg, Virginia Borders store:
Thank you for contacting Borders Group. We understand that you are concerned about our decision not to invite Julia Rose for future performances in our Fredericksburg, Virginia store. Let me assure you first that Borders stores around the world represent an environment where ideas across a wide spectrum of political, social and academic viewpoints are expressed. Our stores have hosted everyone from Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Al Franken and Michael Moore to Newt Gingrich, Dr. Laura and Bob Dole. All have been given the opportunity to talk about their books and their viewpoints. As a retailer, we simply make a wide variety of materials and ideas available. We do not seek to take any political, social or academic stance and certainly would not presume to take a stance on the issue of the President’s legs. In short, we let our customers choose what to read, watch, listen to and buy.
We host live music events in our stores to provide entertainment and to make the shopping experience enjoyable for our customers. Again, if political and/or social commentary is mixed in with the entertainment, we do not seek to judge the viewpoints expressed. However, the bottom line is enjoyable entertainment for our customers. In the case of Julia Rose, the quality of entertainment provided was not what the customers of that store found to be enjoyable. In fact, the staff noticed that customers were vacating the café area where Ms. Rose was performing and several customers complained, mostly about her particular style, which that evening included much more audience banter about a variety of topics than it did singing. Some did complain about her commentary regarding the President, but that was not paramount in our decision not to ask her back…it was our customers negative reaction to her at that particular store that framed our decision and caused the staff to ask that she not be invited back to Fredericksburg.
Ms. Rose remains scheduled to perform at our Manassas store this evening (7/25), and has future events scheduled in our Woodbridge and Fairfax stores.
Overall, I hope that you can understand our objective to create an enjoyable shopping experience for our customers and perhaps now you have a greater understanding of how this particular decision was made. We appreciate the loyalty of all of our customers and take very seriously complaints such as yours. Your voice has been heard and we hope that you will keep an open mind about our viewpoint as well.
Thank you
