Tipsheet

Hey Fired CBS Executive, I Take It You Didn’t See This Before Saying Country Music Victims Deserve No Sympathy

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  October 03, 2017 1:08 PM

If you don’t remember Hayley Geftman-Gold, here’s a refresher. She was until recently a CBS executive who was fired because she wrote that the victims of the Las Vegas shooting didn’t deserve sympathy. Why? Well, they’re country music fans, which means they’re gun-toting Republicans. The Facebook post spread like a brushfire, which prompted CBS to tell her to get the hell out of here. Well, did she see what happened an hour prior to the shooting? Probably not, but even if she hadn’t, it doesn’t excuse that heinous statement. 

The Route 91 Harvest Country Festival was a three-day country music festival running from September 29-October 1. The country music duo Big and Rich played before Jason Aldean, who was the final act of the festival, and the one where 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire, killing 59 and injuring 527 in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Yet, prior to Aldean, singer Kaya Jones captured the whole audience lighting up their mobile phones, as Big and Rich sang “God Bless America.” It was great, with 22,000 attendees joining the chorus. As John Rich said on Fox News last night, it was America out there. Country music is open to whoever likes it, Democratic, Republican, liberal, or conservative. They also described the chaos that ensued when Paddock opened fire (via Entertainment Tonight):

Country duo Big & Rich are sharing their horror at witnessing hysteria and panic erupt in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday, after a gunman fired fatal shots at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival.

Big Kenny and John Rich were on stage at the festival around 90 minutes prior to Jason Aldean’s set -- during which a gunman opened fire, killing 58 people and injuring more than 500 -- but had left on their tour bus for a nearby after-show.

“We were down the street,” Kenny told ET on Tuesday. “I was on a bus ready to step back off of it, when I looked down and saw three SWAT guys with guns pointed in my direction. I throw my hands up and said, ‘Guys, it’s me! We just played.’”

“It was hysteria blocks away,” Kenny continued. “They thought there were multiple shooters throughout the city. When fear and hysteria starts spreading like that, you don’t know … everyone was doing everything they could to secure the moment."

Yet, still, for some people, it was look at all those Republicans that got shot up; they deserve it.  Well, at least she paid a price for her stupidity. On a side note, while that rendition was great, it makes what happened an hour later all the more tragic.