Did they actually do that? The stuff I read sounded like they remained quite defiant. "I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."

Also: death threats. That's a whole other deal than just losing sales. I think you can legitimately whine about receiving death threats, which certainly are attempts to censor speech.

Harvey Weinstein did whine about free speech, cuz the meshbacks in Tay-hoss wouldn't air ads for his documentary. But, you know, Harvey Weinstein.

The Chicks didn't really suffer much economically, in the long haul; they are still mega-sellers.