Bruce Springsteen has come out in support of the Dixie Chicks’s “raw deal”:

The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves, To me, they’re terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American.

There’s no surprise that he would say the likes of this…but did he really mean to say they are terrific American artists?