Don’t look for Bill Press, liberal talk show host and political commentator, to sing the national anthem (such as prior to a major league baseball game) any time soon, because he finds The Star-Spangled Banner is embarrassing with the “military jargon” in the lyrics, notes Grumpy Editor.
Although he is far from carrying a tune, he takes a swing at the patriotic song, calling it “absolutely, monumentally unsingable.”
Press, a former chairman of the California Democratic Party (1993 to 1996), is kicking up a storm of reaction, mainly on the Web (and not much in print), following his choppy rant on his Tuesday “terrestrial radio” broadcast in which he declares:
“Bombs bursting in air, rocket’s red glare, it's all kinds of, you know, a lot of national anthems are that way, all kinds of military jargon and the land there’s only one phrase ‘the land of the free’ which is kind of nice and ‘the home of the brave,’ I don’t know. Are we the only ones who are brave on the planet? I mean all the brave people live here. I mean it’s just stupid I think. I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed every time I hear it.”
One wonders if Press even stands when the national anthem is played.
On the Fox News Channel yesterday, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin on Fox & Friends calls Press’s attack on the national anthem to be a “teachable moment” and an example of “how much hostility these people have towards patriotism in this country.”
The Star-Spangled Banner in 1889 became the official tune played at the raising of the U.S. flag. Lyrics, set to the tune of a popular British song, came from a poem by Francis Scott Key in 1812.
As for Press’s popularity these days, Talkers magazine ranks him No. 77 on a list of talk radio show hosts.
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