In a quick backtrack, the Country Music Association has rescinded yesterday’s media guidelines instructing reporters at the CMA Awards not to ask about the recent massacre at a country music festival in Las Vegas or related topics like “gun rights” or “political affiliations.”
“CMA apologizes for the recently distributed restrictions in the CMA Awards media guidelines, which have since been lifted,” the organization said in a statement, AP reports. “The sentiment was not to infringe and was created with the best of intentions to honor and celebrate Country Music.”
The proposed guidelines were “out of respect for the artists directly or indirectly involved” in the Las Vegas tragedy, according to CMA’s original statement Thursday (November 2). Journalists who broke them risked having their media credentials “potentially revoked via security escort.”
The guidelines earned condemnation from CMA Awards co-host Brad Paisley, who called them “ridiculous and unfair.”
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
This year’s CMA Awards take place November 8 in Nashville. Paisley and Carrie Underwood have co-hosted the show since 2008.
