Fox News host Jeanine Pirro went fishing Wednesday for excuses as to why country music star Jason Aldean shot a now-controversial video in front of a Tennessee courthouse known as the site of a notorious 20th century lynching of a Black man.
Pirro, in a segment on “The Five” discussing why Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town was pulled by the Country Music Television channel, came up with a doozy of a reason for his choice of location.
“Don’t you think he’s trying to show that there hasn’t been much progress and that, you know, Black Lives Matter is violating the law themselves at this point,” Pirro said, to the seeming consternation of even cohost Greg Gutfeld, who was left expressionless by the comment, even looking down at the table as the camera pulled out to a wider shot.
“Rioting and burning,” Pirro added, referring to news clips featured in Aldean’s video of burning U.S. flags and protestors confronting police. “That’s what happened a hundred years later.”
Pirro near the end of her remarks was forced to talk over liberal cohost Jessica Tarlov, who brought up the matter of the video shoot’s location in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, only after Jesse Watters and other cohosts glossed over its significance.
Instead, the Fox News segment, which you can watch at the top of this page — titled on YouTube as “The woke think Aldean’s song is racist: Jesse Watters” — made excuses for Aldean after the country singer was widely blasted for the song’s inflammatory lyrics and for where it was filmed.
The song, which was released in May, has already been interpreted by many as an ode to the notorious “sundown towns” of the past thanks to lyrics like, “Try that in a small town, see how far ya make it down the road… You cross that line, it won’t take long for you to find out/recommend you don’t.”
Aldean shared a lengthy statement to Twitter on Tuesday insisting that “Try That in a Small Town” is a not “a pro-lynching song.”
Sharon Knolle contributed to this report.
