Grammy winning artist Rihanna is upset with CBS for pulling her song and performance of “Run This Town” from it’s Thursday Night Football pregame introduction.
Following the domestic violence controversy involving Ray Rice, CBS decided not to use the Rihanna intro for last weeks game which featured Baltimore and Pittsburgh, and have since decided to abandon the Rihanna introduction altogether.
“We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage,”CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said speaking with SI.com about the decision to pull the intro from last week’s telecast.
Rihanna posted a series of tweets voicing her displeasure with last week’s decision which ultimately led to the song being replaced for the remainder of the season. In one of the tweets, Rihanna uses explicit language when referring to CBS.
Rihanna was also, infamously, the victim of a domestic assault during her relationship with singer Chris Brown, and CBS acknowledged that her previous domestic violence experience contributed in some part to their decision not to use her introduction during last week’s telecast.
Some people feel that the decision penalized Rihanna for being the victim of domestic violence while others agree with the decision to not use the Rihanna performance given what had transpired leading up to the telecast.
However, the song license was revoked according to Speakeasy Roc Nation, the company that owns the license for the song “Run This Town”. They issued this statement regarding the matter: “Due to the misuse and misrepresentation of Rihanna’s name and participation in connection to CBS’ ‘Thursday Night Football,’ 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.”
