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In the days following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., many television and radio stations altered normal programming in response to the events. During this period, a list of "songs with questionable lyrics" purported to be from radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications to its subsidiaries began to circulate on the internet. The actual origin of the list within Clear Channel is not clear: some sources claim that a small list was initially generated by program directors at the Clear Channel central office, while others have described it as a "grass-roots" effort among the company's program directors who originated, shared and added to the list via e-mail exchanges. Similarly, the intent of the list is unclear: many versions of the list included text indicating that the songs had been "banned" from airplay, while Clear Channel representatives have consistently stated that the list was the result of informal communication between employees attempting to react appropriately to the situation and was never an official mandate from the corporation to its subsidiaries.
