Revealing: What ABC Didn’t Show You from the CMA Country Music Fest

by Bruce Carroll

This article is nearly three months in the making.  For the second year in a row, my partner John and I attended the Country Music Association (CMA) Music Fest in Nashville, TN in early June.  As a side note, if you ever get the opportunity – GO!  It is a weeklong celebration of great country music and the great American city of Nashville.

But this isn’t a tourist agency pimping of Music City.  Nope, it is a damning indictment of Hollywood’s natural, auto-immune liberal bias.  Let me explain.

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During the actual CMA Music Fest in June there is a massive concert each of four nights at LP Field where the Tennessee Titans play football in the fall.  The good old American Broadcasting Company takes four nights of country music and compresses it into three hours.  That edited program was shown last evening on ABC for all to see.

As I sat in LP Field in June and saw each night’s great entertainment unfold, I knew with confidence that two notable events would NOT be aired last night on ABC.  I was right.

In fact, I tweeted “live” from the floor of the concert when one of them occurred.  Unfortunately, as usual, Twitter’s status history is malfunctioning. When viewers saw Tim McGraw sing “Southern Voice” last night on ABC, there was an important moment that the network cleverly edited out and actively hid from America.  Why? Because it was inflammatory and would have exposed McGraw, a passionate Democrat activist, to extreme ridicule today.

In what looked like a throwback to the Black Power days of the 1960s, but in reverse, McGraw raised his fist during the chorus of “Southern Voice.” The first time he did it, I was surprised.  The second time I was prepared:

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Not that I would make a big deal out of it, but imagine, if you will, if this was a known conservative singer who had raised his or her fist in the air while singing a song called “Southern Voice.”  But where’s the outrage?  Nowhere.  McGraw actively campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008 (which makes the “white power” fist action even more surreal).  In fact, McGraw lent his vocal talents in January 2010 to a soundtrack compilation, ‘By the People: For the People,’ inspired by the film, ‘By the People: The Election of Barack Obama.’  McGraw joined other notable left-wing artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, the Dixie Chicks and Sheryl Crow on the album paying homage to President Obama.

I’d like to ask the ABC producers of the CMA broadcast last night why they chose to do a tight shot of McGraw during the white power fist move.  And if he thought it was an okay move to make, why they felt they had to shelter him with their clever close-up and editing job.

The second item left on the ABC cutting room floor that America did not see last night was one of the most memorable moments of the entire week at the CMA Music Fest.  Carrie Underwood, the reigning Queen of Country Music, based on her recent CMA awards alone, hasn’t hidden her Christian beliefs dating back to her days on American Idol in 2005.  After all, her first mega-hit was titled “Jesus, Take The Wheel.”

Last evening, during the ABC edited telecast, Underwood’s highlighted songs were “Cowboy Casanova” (a sexy slam at ex-boyfriends) and “Undo It” (a similar, rock-pop-country song expressing regrets about an ex-boyfriend).  Both are peppy dance numbers that don’t do justice to Carrie Underwood’s singing abilities.

As I mentioned, Underwood did make one of THE moments of CMA Music Fest and ABC chose to ignore it.  Underwood took her “Jesus, Take The Wheel” hit and morphed it into the gospel anthem “How Great Thou Art.”  In fact, she first sang the religious song on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium during the taping of a multi-artist gospel album.  Since then Underwood has performed the Wheel-Thou Art mash-up at all of her concerts.

The CMA Music Fest performance was no exception and it was powerful.  I was far from the only one in the 60,000 person crowd who had tears streaming from my eyes. When she was finished, the crowd roared to a decibel level not heard for the rest of the week – with the possible exception of another religious-themed song belted out by Martina McBride (also not shown by ABC).

It is a shame that the ABC audience missed the most memorable performance of the CMA Music Fest, while the network instead chose to find time to showcase pop-pixie Taylor Swift in a day-in-the-life segment.  Luckily for all of us, fans like me had brought their cameras and one other stadium goer had the good sense to film Carrie Underwood’s finest hour.  I strongly recommend watching the next four minutes, tell your friends about this performance, and ask yourself why ABC chose to ignore it.

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The answer of course to my silly question is that ABC, like most of Hollywood, actively and aggressively demotes the importance of Christianity – and God – in American society and pop culture.  Sex, drugs, murder, anger and corruption are all highlighted by TV and movies in America to a much more frequent degree than religion.  It is a shame that the producers at ABC probably looked at each other, rolled their eyes, and shook their heads “no” when the saw the Underwood performance.  They have deprived millions of Americans of a wonderful gift from God.  Luckily we can share it through the empowering media of the Internet.

I knew immediately when I witnessed these two moments “live” in Nashville in June that ABC would do their best to ignore or edit them out of the September 1st broadcast.  I emailed Big Hollywood editor John Nolte earlier this week and told him about these two performances and my prediction of how ABC would handle them.  Unfortunately, political correctness and anti-Christian bigotry is too easy to predict these days.

Not incidentally there was a third performance missing from the ABC broadcast.  And it was missing from the entire week at CMA Music Fest in June.  And it was not seen in Nashville at all since that city was devastated by a thousand-year flood this past May.

What would that be, you naturally ask?  The fact is that President Obama has never visited Middle Tennessee and never properly acknowledged the devastation faced by its residents.  Even Justin Bieber did his part. 

If you would like to donate to the flood victims still suffering in Middle Tennessee and Nashville, please consider contributing to The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.


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Posted Sep 2nd 2010 at 11:26 am in Celebrity News, Culture, Featured Story, Media Criticism, Music, Politics | 116 Comments