by MARIAH THOMPSON Section Editor
Singer Rihanna slammed CBS on Twitter on September 16 after the television network pulled her song and then tried to bring it back.
The pop star tweeted to her millions of fans, “CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back this Thursday? NO, F*%$ you! Y’all are sad for penalizing me for this.”
CBS chose Rihanna to record a special version of one her many hits, “Run This Town” for the “Thursday Night Football” pre-game show.
However, CBS decided to pull it after a video surfaced of ex-Baltimore Raven’s running back Ray Rice beating his then fiancée. After the gruesome video of Rice knocking Janay Rice, now his wife, out in a hotel elevator came up, the Ravens terminated his contract.
Rihanna herself was a victim of assault by her then boyfriend and singer Chris Brown in February of 2009.
An anonymous student said, “I think it was right for CBS to pull Rihanna’s song from the pre-game opener. With the whole scandal with Ray Rice beating up his wife, I do not think it would have been appropriate for them to air that. And also the fact that Rihanna herself is a victim of assault made an even bigger reason for them not to show her song.”
Instead of airing her recording of “Run This Town”, the pre-game show talked about the Rice scandal and video for a good part of the show. Sportscaster James Brown also included a plea to help end domestic violence.
Right after the network decided to pull the song, CBS Sports chairman said, “We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage. A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone.”
Brown talked about how the problem of domestic violence is bigger than football, and how men need to respectfully use their language and not devalue women with their words.
The pre-game was also supposed to feature a comedy bit, but was cut because the network felt like it did not fit the tone either.
Many people do not support CBS’ decision to not air her song.
Sophomore Taylor Wigger said, “I think that if Rihanna was fine with keeping her song on, then CBS should have left it. In my opinion, it kind of shows that Rihanna has moved passed the incident with Chris Brown. It also feels like that she could have used it to show other women who are, or have been a victim, of domestic violence that there is a way out and it gets better.”
After Rihanna’s tweet, however, CBS’s reasoning seemed to change, and they explained that the reason they did not air it was because of the rights of the song.
CBS said, “Due to the misuse and misrepresentations of Rihanna’s name and participation in connection to CBS’ TNF, CBS was not allowed to license and utilize the song ‘Run This Town’. Roc Nation made the decision to not grant the song’s usage.”
CBS will not air Rihanna’s recorded song anytime during the rest of the season.
Who would you want to see kick off “Thursday Night Football”?
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