Rihanna Blasts CBS For Pulling Song After Ray Rice Scandal
The music artist Rihanna is reportedly expressing outrage at the NFL and CBS for reportedly nixing one of her songs in the wake of the Race Rice domestic abuse scandal.
Rihanna took to Twitter this week to denounce both CBS and the NFL, claiming that the network and the league pulled a segment featuring one of her songs that was supposed to play before Thursday night football. The segment was to play Rihanna's song "Run This Town," but because the game was the first of the Baltimore Ravens since the team suspended running back Ray Rice for domestic abuse, the television network pulled the song out of an abundance of caution.
Rihanna tweeted on Tuesday: "CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, [expletive] you! Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this."
"The audacity…' Rihanna added in a second tweet minutes later.
CBS apparently decided to pull the song because Rihanna is also a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of former boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009. Just last week, TMZ released a video showing Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his wife unconscious in a hotel elevator. Rice has been dropped by the Ravens and indefinitely suspended by the NFL.
CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus defended his network's decision to cut the Rihanna song when speaking with SI.com, saying that it was inappropriate to play a frivolous pop song in the wake of such a tragic scandal in the NFL.
"We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage," McManus told the sports media outlet. "A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone."