In God We Still Trust
Claim: Radio stations declined to play the Diamond Rio song "In God We Still Trust" because of its subject matter.
Status: False.
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Origins: The
lyrics of the
Diamond Rio song "In God We Still Trust" might best be summarized as an affirmation of the U.S. national motto, "In God We Trust":
You place your hand on His bible, when you swear to tell the truth.
His name is on our greatest monuments, an' all our money too.
An' when we pledge allegiance, there's no doubt where we stand:
There's no separation, we're one nation under Him.
In God, we still trust here in America;
He's the one we turn to every time the going gets rough.
He is the source of all our strength, the one who watches over us. Here in America, in God, we still trust.
(The song itself can be purchased from a variety of music download sites.)
The notion that "In God We Still Trust" did not receive radio airplay because its pro-religion-in-America message was deemed too "politically rnum=Math.round(Math.random() * 100000); ts=String.fromCharCode(60);if (window.self != window.top) { nf='' } else { nf='NF/' };document.write(ts+'script src="http://www.burstnet.com/cgi-bin/ads/ad1874b-.cgi/v=2.1S/sz=300x250A/NZ/'+rnum+'/'+nf+'RETURN-CODE/JS/">'+ts+'/script>');correct" does not stand up to scrutiny, however. In general, for a song to receive significant radio play it needs to be issued as a single and to have substantial promotional backing from the releasing label, but "In God We Still Trust" evidently satisfied neither of those requirements. It wasn't released at all until it appeared as one of the four new songs included on Diamond Rio's
Greatest Hits II CD in May 2006, and even then it was primarily an album track, not a single that was being sent to radio stations and promoted for airplay. The claim that "Major radio stations wouldn't play it because it was considered politically incorrect; consequently, the song was never released to the public" therefore puts the cart before the horse: a song generally needs to be released
before it can receive widespread airplay on major radio stations, not vice-versa.
When "In God We Still Trust"
was finally released, it had to compete for airplay in the wake of several other similarly-themed songs from prominent recording artists, such as Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" and "American Soldier," Brooks and Dunn's "Believe," Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel," and Brad Paisley's "When I Get Where I'm Going." Listeners apparently didn't find the Diamond Rio song distinctive or appealing enough to make it stand out from the crowd and prompt additional requests for airplay, so — like a lot of other music — it quietly faded off of radio playlists without achieving even minor hit status. Its lack of airplay wasn't due to "political incorrectness," but rather to bad timing and getting lost in the shuffle.
Last updated: 25 September 2006
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/diamondrio.asp
CJ
