Joan Baez: Free speech for me, but not for thee?

The Americana Music Association has announced that cultural icon and seminal American recording artist Joan Baez will receive the "Spirit of Americana" Free Speech Award at the organization's 7th Annual Honors and Awards ceremony.

Boston, Jan. 10. - Cartoonist Al Capp said today that if folksinger Joan Baez can prove that the character "Joanie Phoanie" in his Lil Abner strip resembles her, "I feel sorry for her."   

"Joanie Phoanie is a repulsive, egomaniacal, un-American, non-taxpaying horror," said Capp. "I see no resemblance to Joan Baez whatsoever, but if Miss Baez wants to prove it, let her."   

Joanie Phoanie as depicted in Capp's "Lil Abner" comic strip, rides about in luxury and recently donated $10,000 to an orphanage - in the form of protest songs. 

Miss Baez said in Honolulu yesterday that she probably will go to court to get the character eliminated from the strip unless her attorney can obtain a retraction from Capp. She described the Lil Abner episode concerning a protest singer as "vulgar and stupid."

"MISS BAEZ should remember that protest singers don't own protest songs," observed Capp. "When she protests about others rights to protest she is committing suicide. I think people who go into the protest business should be given a plaque with Harry Truman's picture and his famous quote: ‘If you can't stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.'"

"OH, I KNOW these protest types," said Capp. "They go around singing that our President is a murderer and that our soldiers are rapists, but just let someone call them fakes. But, of course, Joan Baez would do anything for publicity."