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LA Times Demands Country Stars Push Gun Control

It’s happening again.

Another major media outlet is demanding an entertainer take up a left-wing cause. We previously saw this as journalists scolded “South Park” for refusing to bash President Donald Trump for the umpteenth time.

Previously, reporters said Taylor Swift’s silence on the 2016 presidential election amounted to tacit approval of – gasp – Donald Trump.

Utter nonsense.

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Now, The L.A. Times wants the best and brightest country stars to sing from the progressive hymnal when it comes to gun control.

When? Tonight during the annual CMA Awards telecast at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.

The story’s hook? The folks behind the awards gala initially asked reporters not to quiz performers about the recent Las Vegas shooting tragedy or related issues.

The CMA Awards … should be about honoring “the outstanding achievements in country music of the previous year

How revolutionary. An awards show should honor the best and brightest in its industry above all else. Several performers balked at the restrictions all the same. And, to be fair, journalists shouldn’t be told what questions they can or cannot ask. The restrictions were quickly rescinded.

That’s all the newspaper needed to start the shame machine whirring to life. Here’s the story’s headline:

Country music used to tackle the issues. The CMA Awards can’t shy away from them now

Modern country singers are the least political entertainers in music. Pop stars like Katy Perry promote their pet causes ’round the clock. Snoop Dogg clearly had politics in mind when he imagined a Trump corpse as the image for his “Make America Crip Again” release.

Besides, how many country stars campaigned on behalf of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain in recent years? Did Keith Urban shoot a PSA telling us all about the wicked Donald Trump?

The politically charged Kid Rock is an exception, but he’s quasi-country at best.

So, what’s the author’s defense of the notion that country music once stood at the forefront of political commentary? Two examples — both more than 40 years old.

In the late 1960s, Merle Haggard happily inserted himself into the debate over Vietnam with his song “Okie from Muskogee.” Loretta Lynn took up the idea of birth control a few years later with “The Pill.”

When you need Doc Brown’s time machine to make your point you know you’re in trouble. So the premise is faulty at the very start. The article is just warming up.

Like it or not, awards shows, with their live audiences and their ample prime-time real estate, have become important venues for artists to grapple with the issues of the day.

Performers are doing their patriotic duty by alienating audiences and spitting out half truths from a podium?

The reporter lauds a few country singers who attacked gun rights in wake of the attacks with oh, so generic responses.

Like this:

Margo Price told The Times that artists need “to get their heads out of the sand” and “talk about reforming gun laws.”

Pretty vague, no?

Yet the same reporter blasts the other stars who offered “generalities and euphemisms” in the wake of the tragedy. Translation: Those stars didn’t agree with the reporter’s ardent gun control mission, so they must be mocked.

The purpose here is crystal clear. The LA Times wants country stars to scrap the bonds they’ve spent years, if not decades, forming with their fans by lecturing them on an emotional issue.

More importantly, they must support more gun restrictions in the process. Often that means ignoring cold, hard facts along the way.

So what if Brad Paisley spoke about the need for more conceal carry permits tonight? Here’s betting the same LA Times editor who approved this piece would ask for a follow-up savaging Paisley.

But … wouldn’t he be addressing an issue just like icons such as Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynn once did? To today’s biased “mainstream” reporters there’s addressing an issue and then there’s repeating an argument we collectively support

Two very different acts.

Remember, some bullying tactics remain acceptable to the Left.

UPDATE: The Washington Post’s critic followed suit, wailing that the performers didn’t demand more gun control from the stage.

Photo credit: Disney | ABC Television Group via Foter.com / CC BY-ND

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