When defining "appropriate"... isn't

[vsp]

Upon further review, Clear Channel appears to be backing off, claiming that the list was the handiwork of a program director at one of their stations, meant only as a memo/suggestion instead of as a mandate.

Uh-HUH.

Even if that's true, there are stations complying with at least sections of this, often ignoring song context in doing so. (For example, Drowning Pool's "Bodies" isn't about massacre -- it's about a MOSH PIT, fer cryin' out loud.)

Know what I'd ban in these instances? Forget the rock, rap and metal -- those supersensitive to those songs would probably never turn on the kind of stations that'd PLAY them in the first place. But get rid of the sappy songs that have been remixed so that every fourth bar has quotes from a news report about a tragedy wedged into it! It sucked when they did it with movie quotes for Jerry Maguire and Titanic, it REALLY sucks when they "honor" some event like Columbine or the WTC with it, and it doesn't make ANYONE feel any better about the situation.