By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Are the Dixie Chicks victims of a right-wing conspiracy?

That's what their manager, Simon Renshaw, has told country music stations being pressured to drop the Chicks' music after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush last week.

In an e-mail to stations distributed by Sony Music, their label, Renshaw says the protest has been orchestrated by the Free Republic (www.freerepublic.com) , a Web site "for independent, grassroots conservative, " according to founder Jim Robinson of Fresno, Calif. The Web site also alleges that recent anti-war protests are "communist-organized demonstrations."

"Your company is being targeted by a radical right-wing online forum," Renshaw says in the e-mail. "You are being `Freeped,' which is the code word for an organized e-mail/telephone effort attempting to solicit a desired response."

On March 10, Maines told a London audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

Four days later, the Lubbock native apologized by saying, "I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect."

Country music stations in Dallas-Fort Worth and Kansas City have been deluged with e-mails and calls demanding that the Dixie Chicks be dropped from the airwaves.

Complaints didn't arrive at WUBE-FM (105.1) until Monday. Only one person called Thursday when the B105 morning show read the story, says Tim Closson, operations manager.

"We broke the story on Thursday, and got very little reaction to it. We mentioned it again on Friday, and only got a few calls," he says.

The Chicks remain on B105. Closson says he "seriously considered indefinitely pulling all Dixie Chicks music... (but) our decision came down to one thing: We believe in the constitution. We believe in the freedom of speech."

At Middletown's WPFB-FM (105.9),the Dixie Chicks were dropped Monday for the week by Mark Evar, operations director.

"They're telling us that the minute the Dixie Chicks come on, they're going to change the station - and we don't want to lose any listeners," Evar says.

The Chicks' manager, in his e-mail, says the group's Web site "was totally overrun (Sunday) and had to be closed down, and our publicist's servers and telephone system failed under the weight of the calls.

"This is an extremely active and well-organized group. As always the `squeaky wheel gets the grease' and these weasels know how to squeak," Renshaw says.

Renshaw apparently used the word "weasel" because the Free Republic Web site uses that term.

Says the Free Republic home page: "As war with Iraq becomes imminent, more and more of the `useful idiot' leftist weasels are crawling out of the woodwork. So-called `anti-war' protests are popping up in cities all across the nation.

"We will not allow these communist organized demonstrations (to) go unanswered. Patriotic Americans are countering these terrorist supporting leftists wherever and whenever they pop up."

TV today: Dutch journalist Peter Tetteroo gives viewers a rare look at North Korea in Welcome to North Korea (7:30 p.m., Cinemax).

American Idol finalists sing movie tunes - giving Fox an excuse to hype the new film with last summer's Idol stars, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini (8-10 p.m., Channels 19, 45).

Original host Monty Hall appears on NBC's Let's Make a Deal revival (8 p.m., Channels 5, 22).

Talk shows: Today's guests from TV Data:

Regis and Kelly (9 a.m., Channel 9): Tom Sizemore, Lisa Rinna.

Wayne Brady (10 a.m., Channel 9): Eugene Levy, Billy Campbell, Steve Schirripa.

The View (11 a.m., Channel 9): Patricia Heaton, John Ritter, Michael Chiklis.

Caroline Rhea (3 p.m., Channel 19): Lisa Rinna, Vanessa Olivarez (American Idol).

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com