Ever since musician Kid Rock publicly toyed with the idea of running for the Senate to represent Michigan, he’s been a target of many in the press.

The rocker seemed to have had enough of it at a Tuesday night concert at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan — where reportedly more than 200 people showed up to protest.

Rock denied a press pass to the Detroit Free Press after it published an opinion article accusing Rock of being racist.

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“This is a musician who got rich off crass cultural appropriation of black music, who used to wrap his brand in the Confederate flag — a symbol inextricably linked to racism, no matter what its defenders say,” wrote Stephen Henderson, a Detroit Free Press page editor.

Henderson said the decision to let Rock perform at the opening of an $862 million arena was a “middle finger to Detroiters” — and that “It sent a message to the Detroiters who made the project possible and who have yet to see the benefits promised. It’s a message that’s not too far off those Jim Crow-era signs warning that blacks weren’t welcome.”

Rock and his publicist hit back — and hit back hard. “You guys wrote a f***ed up story and allowed it to be published. You want a quote, there it is,” Kirk Webster, Rock’s publicist, told the publication.

He added about denying the paper a press pass, “To be published without doing any fact-checking on what Kid Rock has done for the city of Detroit? We don’t condone bad behavior. We won’t reward bad behavior.”

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Kid Rock himself addressed the issue of the media’s attack on him on Monday in a social media post. “They are trying to use the old Confederate flag BS, etc., to stir the pot, when we all know none of this would be going on if I were not thinking of running for office,” he wrote, asking fans to “pay no attention to the garbage the extreme Left is trying to create.”

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He added, “I am, however, very disappointed that none of the people, businesses or charities I have so diligently supported in Detroit have had anything to say about all these unfounded attacks from these handful of jacka**es and the Detroit Free Press. So for the unforeseen future I will focus my philanthropy efforts on other organizations besides the ones I have supported in the past.”

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Calling Kid Rock a racist in a world in which actual racists have shown their nasty faces in places like Charlottesville, Virginia, is beyond extreme rhetoric. Then again, the writer for the Detroit Free Press also accused Rock of “cultural appropriation” —immediately disqualifying the authority of anything he said.

The musician is right in saying this heavy spotlight on him was not there until he mentioned he may run for office — he wants to challenge Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has been in office a whopping 16 years.

Related: What a ‘Senator Kid Rock’ Might Look Like

Kid Rock also does quite a bit of charitable work, including through his Kid Rock Foundation, which raises funds and awareness for charities that help disadvantaged children and victims of war, natural disasters, and illness. No need to look into it, though — people like Henderson have deemed Rock racist, so that means his charity likely only helps white people … Please.

Having Rock perform at the opening of a stadium in Detroit is a perfectly logical decision. He does a lot for the city and represents it wholeheartedly in his music.

At a time we have seen the actual face of modern-day racism, for people like Henderson and others who are targeting Rock to accuse him so easily of it is sad, vicious, and beyond unhealthy for America’s culture.