FACT CHECK: No, Country Music Television Did Not Permanently Ban Taylor Swift
The claim was originally posted by a satirical website.
Country star Travis Tritt sends reality check to Jason Aldean over leftist attempt to silence new song: 'D**n the social media torpedoes'
Country singer Travis Tritt offered Jason Aldean valuable perspective on Wednesday about the leftist campaign to silence his new song, "Try That in a Small Town."
Without explanation, Country Music Television pulled from its airwaves the new music video for the song. Critics of the song, according to Aldean, say it is "pro-lynching," an accusation Aldean denied.
The outrage centered on two points. First, the video was filmed outside a Tennessee courthouse that was the site where 18-year-old Henry Choate, a black man, was lynched in 1927. Second, the song, according to its critics, glorifies guns. Anti-gun activist Shannon Watts, for example, has celebrated her role in getting CMT to pull Aldean's music video.
What did Tritt say?
The 60-year-old country singer reminded Aldean on Wednesday that social media does not represent reality, urging him not to cave to pressure from the outrage mob.
"I would also like to remind my friend, @Jason_Aldean that Twitter and social media in general is not a real place. The views shared by many accounts on this platform are not actually representative of the vast majority of the population of this country," Tritt said.
"Say what you want to say and be who you want to be," he added. "Damn the social media torpedoes."
— (@)
Tritt explained that he "love[s]" Aldean's song and rejected claims that it promotes violence.
On the contrary, Tritt said he believes the song expresses a view that many Americans hold: that activist violence "would not be tolerated by many people in many places across the USA."
What is happening now?
While CMT representatives have not said why they yanked the video, the controversy is bringing more attention to Aldean's song than it probably would have generated otherwise. The song has, in fact, already shot up to #1 on iTunes.
Meanwhile, TackleBox Films, the production company behind the music video, spoke out on Wednesday and explained the location for the shoot was chosen not based on its history, but because it is a "popular filming location outside of Nashville."
"Any alternative narrative suggesting the music video’s location decision is false," the company said.
TackleBox Films also clarified that Aldean did not select the location.
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Jason Aldean accused of promoting LYNCHING and RACISM in a song with ZERO race-related lyrics
CMT removed Jason Aldean’s recent release “Try That in a Small Town” after the song sparked mass controversy because of its alleged promotion of lynching and racism.
Granted the lyrics have zero mention of race and the music video focuses almost exclusively on white people committing crimes, how are the wokeists justifying their accusations?
“Apparently the video was filmed in front of a courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where a white mob lynched a young black man, Henry Choate, from the building in 1927,” Sara Gonzales explains.
Aldean “must be a history expert,” she adds sarcastically.
A closer analysis of the lyrics and music video will reveal that the song actually speaks out against left-wing rioting, violence against law enforcement, gun control, and soft-on-crime approaches.
“There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it – and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage – and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music – this one goes too far,” Aldean said in a statement following the scrutiny.
While Sara thinks Aldean’s defense of his song is certainly justified, Jason Buttrill thinks that the only thing the country star owes to the people vilifying his song is a big “suck it.”
“They want you to capitulate in front of the entire world stage” Jason says, “and it doesn’t matter if you do, because they won’t accept your capitulation” anyway.
Regardless, it appears that millions of non-woke fans are rallying to support Aldean and his song. Despite being pulled by CMT, “Try That in a Small Town” has hit #1 on the iTunes charts, surpassing Taylor Swift and K-pop stars alike.
Perhaps Aldean owes a thank you to all his critics, then?
“The appropriate response [is] ‘thanks for making me a ton of money and making me #1 on the charts,'” Rob Eno says.
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The Real Reason The Left Hates Jason Aldean’s New Song Has Nothing To Do With ‘Racism’
Jason Aldean’s song is about citizens physically resisting the left’s organized violence and dysfunction.Country star performs with drag queen backup dancers at CMT Music Awards, appears to call for stricter gun laws
During the 2023 CMT Music Awards on Sunday, singer and co-host Kelsea Ballerini made a political statement against Tennessee's GOP-backed law banning children from drag shows by performing her hit song with drag queen backup dancers.
Ballerini, 29, also appeared to push for stricter gun laws following the recent shooting at the Covenant School, where a 28-year-old transgender individual murdered three children and three adults.
During her performance, Ballerini sang her popular single, "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)." Four drag queens from the reality television show "RuPaul's Drag Race" joined Ballerini onstage. The performance concluded with a burst of confetti, rainbow stage lights, and a rainbow backdrop.
When asked about the performance, Ballerini told Entertainment Tonight, "I love performance, and I love self-expression, and I love inclusivity."
Ballerini posted on Twitter that evening, "If you go down, I'm going down too," with a rainbow flag emoji. She also thanked the drag queens "for celebrating love, self expression, and performance."
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation released a statement in support of Ballerini's performance, applauding her for displaying "bold allyship by proudly featuring talented and beloved drag artists."
In January, Tennessee Republicans introduced Senate Bill 3, which would designate drag queen shows as adult-only entertainment that cannot be performed in public spaces where children could be present.
On Friday, the bill was temporarily halted by a federal judge just hours before it was scheduled to go into effect.
Prior to her performance, Ballerini addressed the audience about the recent shooting at a Christian school in Nashville.
"On March 27, 2023, three 9-year-olds — Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs — along with Dr. Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, and Mike Hill, walked into the Covenant School and didn't walk out," Ballerini stated. "The community of sorrow over this and the 130 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone stretches from coast to coast."
"I wanted to personally stand up here and share this moment because, on August 21, 2008, I watched Ryan McDonald, my 15-year-old classmate at Central High School, lose his life to a gun in our cafeteria," Ballerini continued.
"Tonight's broadcast is dedicated to the ever-growing list of families, friends, survivors, witnesses, and responders whose lives continue to forever be changed by gun violence," she added. "I pray deeply that the closeness and the community that we feel through the next few hours of music can soon turn into action — like, real action — that moves us forward together to create change for the safety of our kids and our loved ones."
\u201cWhat can\u2019t our host do? @KelseaBallerini absolutely SLAYED her #CMTAwards performance! \ud83c\udf08\u2728\u201d— CMT (@CMT) 1680489838
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John Rich savages fellow country music stars kowtowing to leftist ideology with silence following 'woke' CMT Music Awards show
Country music star John Rich launched into a diatribe against his fellow country artists on Thursday, tearing into them for what he said was silence when it came to speaking up for their values.
In the tweet, he appeared to suggest that leftist ideologies were infiltrating the industry, and complicit country music singers were more apt to keep their mouths closed — perhaps out of fear of cancellation — thus allowing liberals to steamroll what they care about into the ground.
Rich made the remarks just one day after Wednesday night's 2021 CMT Music Awards, which Rolling Stone praised for what it suggested was the annual show's newfound "wokeness."
What are the details?
In the Thursday morning tweet, the outspoken country star wrote, "There are many conservative country music singers that just won't say anything to push back against the ideologies that aim to erase what they care about. Why? You know why. I hope soon we see them start to speak up. The country music industry is out of touch with the audience."
There are many conservative country music singers that just won't say anything to push back against the ideologies… https://t.co/hzhhXhIk7G
— John Rich (@johnrich) 1623335303.0
What happened Wednesday night?
According to Rolling Stone, the CMT Music Awards had five defining moments that detailed how "the show woke up."
Rolling Stone's Jon Freeman and Joseph Hudak began the lengthy article, "The producers of the 2021 CMT Music Awards were clearly paying attention. After a year-plus national conversation about equity, diversity, and, yes, racism, Wednesday night's CMT Awards made a clear attempt to be inclusive, devoting airtime to artists and personalities of color."
They continued, "While we would have liked to have seen the CMTs acknowledge June as LGBTQ Pride Month (especially after former CMT Awards host Kid Rock doubled down on a homophobic slur on Twitter a few hours earlier), the production was an admirable step forward in country music's ongoing evolution."
Several moments of diversity that caught their attention, Freeman and Hudak added, included Gladys Knight's performance with Breland and Mickey Guyton to cover "Friendship Train," which the pair said "has a stirring message of unity for a world about to go up in flames."
"Somehow, it's a message that — no offense — just hits different when it's not coming from Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard," the article added.
Freeman and Hudak also lauded the show for naming Linda Martell with CMT's Equal Play Award "owing to her status as the lone black woman to have charted a solo single inside the country Top 20."
"[I]t was the presentation of Video of the Year that best illustrated how CMT is reading the room and looking forward," Freeman and Hudak noted. "Anthony Mackie, the black 'Captain America' star of Disney's 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,' made his CMT Awards debut to give the trophy to winners Carrie Underwood and John Legend — TV's biggest superhero handing out the night's biggest award."
What else?
Rich's remarks also come just a week after CMT fans threatened a boycott of the network after it urged viewers to support a Michael Bloomberg-backed gun control initiative from Everytown for Gun Safety.
The network tweeted its support of the movement last week, writing, "We're (virtually) wearing orange today in support [sic] National Gun Violence Awareness Day and to call attention to more than 100 lives that are lost every day to gun violence. #WearOrange and visit rearrange.org for more."
The tweet was not well received for many fans, and one user blasted the comment as "anti-gun propaganda disguised as virtue."
"CMT has gone down the train with all other corporations who sell out to Woke extremists," the user added.
Another Twitter user noted, "I for one, will not ever watch any station who champions any campaign against the 2nd Amendment, which is what CMT just did. You'd think they would know their audiance [sic], but you put woke idiots in charge, and you get stupidity."
Yet another critic complained, "@CMT and @NASCAR have both forgotten who their core audience is again I see."
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