Leave it to the “ladies” on ABC’s “The View,” a show that soon could no longer be part of Disney, to wade into reading a “legal note” when talking about what should just be a commonsense issue. Such was the case when the group of clucking hens, this time led by Sunny Hosting, attacked Jason Aldean for his new song, “Try That in a Small Town.”
Predictably, their main line of attack is that the song, which is against crime and rioting, is racist. Sunny Hostin led that attack, saying that though she doesn’t “believe in censorship,” she thinks the song is racist because Aldean is from a town in Georgia that she thinks is “one of the most racist places in the country.”
Making that ridiculous point, Hostin, a former lawyer, began by saying that was not going to give Aldean the benefit of the doubt in this situation, saying, “I’m actually not going to give [Aldean] the benefit of the doubt.”
Continuing, she proceeded to do exactly that and, instead of being fair and discussing the song’s message, attack Aldean for being from a town in Georgia called Macon, saying, “As a lawyer, when I put my legal hat on, I don’t believe in censorship. However, this man is from Macon, Georgia. My father’s from Augusta, Georgia, and Macon, Georgia. I spent many summers there. … It is one of the most racist places in this country.”
Then she returned to why she wouldn’t give him the benefit of the doubt, insinuating that the “imagery,” in the music video was racist: “So don’t tell me that he knew nothing about what that imagery [from the music video] meant. … So I don’t give him the benefit of the doubt.” The imagery was mostly footage of riots that occurred in large cities across America.
Then, at the end of the segment, Hostin retreated to the legal note issue, saying, “Oh, I’m sorry. I have a legal note: Jason Aldean defended his song in a statement, saying the references people have made are not only meritless but dangerous. He added there is not a single lyric in that song that references race or points to it, and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage.”
Aldean, in a statement posted to Twitter after the attacks on his song began, said, “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless but dangerous.”
Continuing, he noted that the footage was real news footage, not made up, “racist” video footage, saying, “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.”
Watch Hostin attack Aldean here: