Brad Paisley gave the Country Music Association about three seconds to “do the right thing” and change its mind about a ban they placed on media questions about the Las Vegas shooting, guns and politics at their upcoming award show, yesterday — and the CMA listened.
The CMA rescinded its position soon after Paisley took to Twitter to bash the guidelines for press covering the 51st Annual CMA Awards ceremony on Wednesday. The CMA had demanded journalists not focus “coverage of the CMA Awards Red Carpet and Backstage Media Center on the Las Vegas tragedy, gun rights, political affiliations or topics of the like” — under threat their credentials could potentially be “revoked via security escort.”
“I’m sure the CMA will do the right thing and rescind these ridiculous and unfair press guidelines. In 3…2….1…..,” Paisley, who has co-hosted the show with Carrie Underwood for nine years, tweeted.
“CMA apologizes for the recently distributed restrictions in the CMA Awards media guidelines, which have since been lifted,” the association said in a statement obtained by TheWrap. “The sentiment was not to infringe and was created with the best of intentions to honor and celebrate Country Music.”
Though responses to Paisley’s tweet were somewhat mixed, he was soon backed up by other country music singers like Will Hoge and Cam.
Last week, Paisley spoke with Nashville Scene about how the CMAs would be addressing the tragedy in Las Vegas. “We’re not going to ignore it, but we’re not going to also dwell on that,” he said. “We have to make sure we honor those we’ve lost, but we also [have to] celebrate this music, which lives on, and do a good job having the heart we need to have on that night.”
Here are their tweets:
I'm sure the CMA will do the right thing and rescind these ridiculous and unfair press guidelines. In 3…2….1…..
— Brad Paisley (@BradPaisley) November 3, 2017
Thanks Brad.
— Will Hoge (@WillHoge) November 3, 2017
THANK YOU, @BradPaisley – this is embarrassing and has been taken way too far. You can encourage respect without silencing people, #CMA https://t.co/58pBDV6LLm
— Cam (@camcountry) November 3, 2017