In July 2023, users on Facebook, Twitter, Truth Social, and beyond, all shared an article with the headline, "CMAs Replaces Garth Brooks with Jason Aldean as MC: 'He's More In Tune With Country Values.'"
This article was originally published on dunning-kruger-times.com on July 18.
Dunning-kruger-times.com is associated with a network of websites known as America's Last Line of Defense. One of the apparent goals behind this network of websites is to troll conservative users with satirical content, a goal that includes calling anyone who believes the fake stories a "tater."
In other words, this rumor about the Country Music Association (CMA) replacing Garth Brooks with Jason Aldean was not true, nor could we find any evidence of either man being named as a future emcee by either the CMA or the Academy Of Country Music Awards (ACM).
The satirical article on dunning-kruger-times.com began as follows:
Country music star Jason Aldean is making waves in liberal circles with his new song about living a small-town life. For those on the left, apparently, loving God and owning guns is barbaric.
To those who actually live in rural America, Aldean was singing their anthem. They love their country, their god, and yes…their guns. They represent an overwhelming number of country music fans.
The Academy of Country Music has decided that Aldean represents the fan base far more than next year's scheduled Master of Ceremonies, Garth Brooks. "He's in tune with country values, said Academy President Joe Barron, "and while we appreciate Garth's contributions, he no longer represents us."
This satirical story appeared to have been inspired by the recent news that Aldean's latest music video, "Try That In A Small Town," had been pulled by Country Music Television (CMT) in response to an outcry over historically charged references, as The Associated Press reported.
The satirical article also looked to have been inspired by other news in regard to comments Brooks had made while discussing the opening of his upcoming Nashville bar. We reported on this subject while covering yet another satirical story back in June.
Back to the subject about the satirical article concerning Aldean and Brooks, we noticed that users were sharing the story from sources other than dunning-kruger-times.com. This meant that the story had outgrown its satirical roots and had been republished on other websites.
For example, on July 19, Facebook pages 1st News and My America published posts with the same headline and directed users to click on one of two links in the comments, which led to either newsc5.com or breakingnewspapers.com. The latter was created on a domain registrar located in Lithuania, which perhaps meant that the two Facebook pages and two websites were all being operated from the country.
This story will be updated if more information comes to light.