Special Note: Margo Price was right (Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down)

Marissa Moss

18 Sep 2025 — 4 min read

It’s a terrifying day in America, once again. And though I could be talking about any number of horrifying things, today I’m interrupting our usual newsletter schedule to talk about censorship. Yesterday, Jimmy Kimmel was suspended indefinitely for comments he made about the murder of Charlie Kirk after the chair of the FCC threatened to "take action" against Disney and ABC – specifically for allegedly mischaracterizing the politics of the shooter, something about a 1000 people on Fox News also did about five minutes after the event took place all while praising Kirk as an advocate of free speech.

We don’t know if and when Kimmel will come back on air, but as of now, Margo Price was the last guest playing a blistering version of her brilliant song “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” from her new album Hard Headed Woman. I’d say the irony is potent as hell if I actually thought this was just a casual accident – I’m not at all implying that Margo knew what was coming to Kimmel, but she knew, and knows, exactly what is happening to our country right now. She pays attention deeply. The voices silenced, the queer and trans lives targeted, the rapidly declining rights for women and the families being ripped apart on the streets of the cities where they live, right in front of our eyes. “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” was written as an anthem to keep the fuck going in times of severe oppression, and was partially inspired by the lines whispered by Kris Kristofferson into Sinead O’Connor’s ear after she was booed on stage at a tribute, in the wake of her ripping up a picture of the pope on television. Few people in country music and beyond are navigating their art and their public place the way Margo Price is, in an industry whose doors she’s had to kick and pry and fight open not just for her but for everyone who comes after.

Folks are sounding the alarm now, but what if we listened earlier? Margo reminds us to think about this, because Sinead was right. She was right to expose and protest the Catholic Church’s coverup of unimaginable degrees of child abuse, though she paid the price with her entire career. She was "cancelled." The Chicks, less than a decade later, were cancelled for their on stage protest of the Iraq War, a war justified by the hunt for weapons of mass destruction – weapons that were never found and likely never existed. Sinead was right. The Chicks were right. Of course, Black women in and out of music have too often been cancelled not just for being right (see: Karen Attiah) but for simply existing.

Where would we be now if we listened to them in 1992, 2003, today?

Women have been right, and paid the price. They sounded the alarm time and time again. Only later did we listen not just to what we were saying, but to what happened to them. We are all paying the price now. Pay attention, and heed these words:

Don't let the bastards get you down.