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An article claiming that country music singer Blake Shelton had canceled a $30 million project with Country Music Television in support of Jason Aldean went viral. The article was published on the website The Dunning-Kruger Times on July 22, 2023, further claiming that Shelton had said Aldean deserved better than CMT’s disrespectful behavior towards him.
CMT pulled the music video of Aldean’s Try That in a Small Town after Aldean was accused of promoting pro-lynching stances in the MV, which was released on July 14. After its release, the music video was played on Country Music Television in the slot of morning music video hours on July 16.
However, there is no real evidence of Blake Shelton backing out of a $30 million worth of project with CMT to show his support for Jason Aldean. The article that stated the same is a satirical website. The Dunning-Kruger Times posts made-up stories based on real people and current socio-political affairs.
On their “About Us” page, The Dunning-Kruger Times stated that it is a subsidiary of America’s Last Line of Defense, a parody and satire network that creates fictional news articles with obvious elements of sarcasm and humor. So, the claim about Blake Shelton canceling his CMT project is fake and holds no truth.
Internet reacts to viral claim about Blake Shelton supporting Jason Aldean
The Dunning-Kruger Times wrote in their piece that Joe Barron, a spokesperson at CMT said that the network did not intend to upset anyone by pulling Jason Aldean’s music video. Instead, CMT removed it to only make everyone feel comfortable. The website later added a sarcastic note:
“We do like $60 million a year in total revenue, so losing a $30 million fictional production will either lose us a bunch or save us a bunch. We can’t really figure it out. We went woke, so we’re probably gonna go ahead and go broke.”
The satirical website referred to Art Tubolls as CMT’s program director. However, it’s a made-up name as the current Program Director at CMT is Stanley Dash.
Meanwhile, some netizens, who were already aware of The Dunning-Kruger Times and their endless satirical stories knew that the viral claim was fake, but a few others believed the article. A few Twitter users people blamed Country Music Television for not prioritizing its artists. They thought that Blake Shelton actually canceled his project with CMT and praised him for it.
Jason Aldean's response to backlash surrounding his latest music video
After going viral because of his music video, Jason Aldean addressed the backlash in a long post on the platform on July 19. He wrote that he was suddenly accused of releasing a song that has a pro-lynching approach in it even when the song’s audio had already been released in May.
Aldean said that the music video was subject to allegations that the singer was not too pleased with the “Black Lives Matter” protests happening nationwide. He called these references dangerous and meritless and further stated that not a single verse in the song Try That In A Small Town has references to race. The 46-year-old singer added:
“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.”
Jason Aldean went on to shed light on his own interpretation of the track, saying that for him, the song refers to the feeling of being in a community, where people take care of their neighbors irrespective of differences of belief or background.
