The overwhelming majority of Individuals will spend this Independence Day weekend taking delight of their nation as they have fun the freedoms established by the Founding Fathers.
Nonetheless, there are some journalists who’re embarrassed by the USA. A few of them even appear to take delight in truly shaming the nation.
Over time, the Media Analysis Heart has caught journalists ridiculing and deriding America. The next is a countdown of the Media’s 20 Worst Anti-American Outbursts (as culled from the MRC’s archives):
20. Hope You Had A Completely satisfied Fourth of July, Too
“Oh say, we have seen an excessive amount of. The Star-Spangled Banner pushes like a cough by America’s mouth and the twilight’s final gleaming is simply that, a sickly flash above our heads as we experience unsuspecting within the bellies of smooth trains, plop to our knees in church buildings, embracing truths that disgust us.”
— Boston Globe arts critic and poet Patricia Smith in The Nation’s “Patriotism” problem, July 15/22, 1991.
19. Respecting Anthem = Racism
“A few of the phrases of the Nationwide Anthem are white supremacist….I believe this can be a nation whose historical past is racist, whose historical past is steeped in white supremacy, and the anthem displays that in its very phrases.”
— Detroit Free Press author Stephen Henderson on NBC’s Meet the Press, September 24, 2017.
18. Now Is the A part of the Debate The place You Ought to Dump on America
“Governor Romney, Daniel Duchovnik [ph] from Walnut Creek, California needs to know, ‘What do you dislike most about America?’”
— On-line query chosen by The Politico’s Jim VandeHei to pose to the Republican presidential candidates at their Could 3, 2007 MSNBC debate.
17. Liberal Radio Host: It Pains Me to Chant “U.S.A!”
“As I’ve grown older, I discover my ‘U.S.A.!’-chanting reflex more and more interrupted by pangs of discomfort, and never as a result of I’m ashamed of our nation or our Olympians….Missed within the ensuing red-white-and-blue hoopla, in fact, is the truth that we aren’t so distinctive outdoors the Olympic village….We’re not gold, silver and even bronze medalists relating to healthcare; sadly, we’re thirty ninth for toddler mortality, forty third for feminine mortality, forty second for grownup male mortal-ity….If we do stand atop a dais wherever apart from at a sporting occasion, it’s for navy spending, carbon emissions and incarceration charges.”
— Colorado radio host David Sirota in an August 1, 2012 piece for Salon.com, “Don’t chant ‘U.S.A.!’ It’s liberal Individuals’ Olympic dilemma: How do they root for his or her countrymen with out being jingoistic?”
16. Ringing the Bells of Jingoism
“The professional-American method is one NBC not often detours from. It’s within the DNA of Olympic broadcasting. Networks world wide with the rights to the Video games can toll their jingo bells after they please. And it’s simpler to interview your personal nation’s athletes, particularly if language obstacles exist. Nonetheless, there must be a greater option to current these tales with out a lot American navel-gazing.”
— New York Occasions sports activities/TV columnist Richard Sandomir in an August 17, 2016 column.
15. Embarrassed by the Star Spangled Banner
“I imply, when you consider it, it’s ‘bombs bursting in air,’ ‘rocket’s crimson glare,’ it’s all types of — you understand numerous nationwide anthems are that approach, too — all types of navy jargon, and the land — there’s just one phrase ‘the land of the free,’ which is form of good, and ‘the house of the courageous?’ I don’t know….Are we [Americans] the one ones who’re courageous on the planet? I imply, ‘all of the courageous individuals reside right here.’ I imply, it’s simply silly, I believe. I’m embarrassed, I’m embarrassed each time I hear it.”
— Former CNN and MSNBC host Invoice Press on his Full Court docket Press nationally-syndicated radio present, June 5, 2012.
14. Despising the Stars and Stripes
“My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant Excessive College solely blocks from the World Commerce Heart, thinks we should always fly an American flag out our window. Undoubtedly not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and conflict. She tells me I’m fallacious — the flag means standing collectively and honoring the useless and saying no to terrorism. In a approach we’re each proper….[The flag] has to bear a variety of meanings, from easy, dignified sorrow to the violent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry that has already resulted in homicide, vandalism and arson across the nation and harassment on New York Metropolis streets and campuses.”
— The Nation’s Katha Pollitt in an October 8, 2001 column.
13. Crimson, White, and Scary
“A buddy of ours, a distinguished member of the ‘liberal media,’ wrote to the pinnacle of our youngsters’ faculty final week suggesting that college students spend extra time with the Pledge of Allegiance and The Star-Spangled Banner. The principal agreed. Our 10-year-old daughter requested her mom if we may put a flag on our automobile. My spouse reluctantly agreed, however hasn’t procured the flag but….My spouse primarily shares our daughter’s emotions. However for her, the image of the flag was appropriated in her youth by counter-protesters who used it to disclaim the patriotism of the conflict’s opponents. Flag-waving feels aggressive to her.”
— Former CBS Night Information producer Dick Meyer in a commentary posted October 1, 2001 on CBSNews.com.
12. Taking Again the Flag
“I made a decision to placed on my flag pin tonight — first time. Till now I haven’t thought it essential to show a little bit metallic icon of patriotism for everybody to see….I put it on to take it again. The flag’s been hijacked and was a emblem – the trademark of a monopoly on patriotism….Once I see flags sprouting on official lapels, I consider the time in China once I noticed Mao’s Little Crimson Ebook on each official’s desk, omnipresent and unread. However extra galling than something are all these moralistic ideologues in Washington sporting the flag of their lapels whereas writing books and operating Websites and publishing magazines attacking dissenters as un-American….I put it on to remind myself that not each patriot thinks we should always do to the individuals of Baghdad what bin Laden did to us.”
— Invoice Moyers on PBS’s Now, February 28, 2003.
11. Completely satisfied Independence Day, America Sucks
“We all know what July 4th is. What about July fifth? After the fireworks, the music, the rhetoric of freedom what then?…What sort of nation does our flag fly over now? Not a much less harmless one, as a result of American innocence was by no means the reality. Not one much less reluctant to go to conflict with out a good purpose, as a result of now we have foolishly credited dangerous causes previously. However now the nation lacks even that. As our President demonstrated final week, now we have turn out to be a individuals who wage never-ending conflict killing and maiming our younger ones and theirs with out being remotely in a position to say why.”
— Columnist James Carroll within the July 5, 2005 Boston Globe.
10. Nationwide Anthem Is “Robust to Take”
Co-host Sara Haines: “To Consultant Crenshaw, who says, you understand, that is the fundamental factor of an Olympian, to characterize the nation, Gwen Berry is representing the nation. She’s questioning an American anthem that perhaps doesn’t characterize all individuals within the nation.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “Within the upcoming days, we’ll play you the American anthem and allow you to see what you consider it. As a result of there’s some stuff in there that makes it a little bit bit powerful to take.”
— Dialogue about Olympian Gwen Barry protesting the Nationwide Anthem, ABC’s The View, June 29.
9. Editor: I Need to Burn the Flag
“If the U.S. Senate follows its foolish siblings within the Home of Representatives and votes for a ban on burning the American flag, I’m going to burn one. It by no means occurred to me to burn a flag — besides in some flag-retiring ceremony — however simply the concept Congress has nothing higher to do than spend time on this nutty problem makes me wish to burn one.”
— Linda Grist Cunningham, Government Editor of the Rockford Register Star in Illinois, in a June 26, 2005 column.
8. Let’s Shred the Structure!
“The framers weren’t gods and weren’t infallible. Sure, they gave us, and the world, a blueprint for the safety of democratic freedoms — freedom of speech, meeting, faith — however additionally they gave us the concept a black individual was three-fifths of a human being, that girls weren’t allowed to vote and that South Dakota ought to have the identical variety of Senators as California, which is form of loopy….If the Structure was meant to restrict the federal authorities, it certain does not say so.”
— Time managing editor Richard Stengel within the journal’s July 4, 2011 version, which featured an image of the U.S. Structure going by a shredder with the headline, “Does It Nonetheless Matter?”
7. Put up-9/11 Flag-Waving “Typically a Cousin to Intolerance”
“The CNN movie [The Flag], primarily based on a e book by David Pal, focuses on the smudged American flag that three firefighters raised by the mud of the collapsed buildings at floor zero late within the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001. {A photograph} of the flag elevating taken by Thomas E. Franklin of the New Jersey newspaper The Report turned a heartening, patriotic image for a lot of on an in any other case terrible day….[But] the photographer rebelled at efforts to make him a star, and so did the three firefighters. A plan to show the {photograph} right into a sculpture turned a supply of controversy. Nationwide, flag-waving was typically a cousin to intolerance.”
— From New York Occasions critic Neil Genzlinger’s September 4, 2013 assessment of CNN’s The Flag.
6. Neglect Concerning the “Terse and Previous” Founding Paperwork
“America Structure is terse and previous, and it ensures comparatively few rights….The Structure is out of step with the remainder of the world in failing to guard, at the least in so many phrases, a proper to journey, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to meals, schooling and well being care. It has its idiosyncrasies. Solely two p.c of the world’s constitutions defend, because the Second Modification does, a proper to bear arms. (Its brothers in arms are Guatemala and Mexico.)”
— New York Times Supreme Court docket reporter Andrew Liptak in a front-page February 7, 2012 “Sidebar” information evaluation, “We the Folks Loses Attraction with Folks Across the World.”
5. American Revolution = “Monumental Mistake”
“American independence in 1776 was a monumental mistake….I’m moderately assured a world by which the revolution by no means occurred can be higher than the one we reside in now, for 3 foremost causes: Slavery would’ve been abolished earlier, American Indians would’ve confronted rampant persecution however not the outright ethnic cleaning Andrew Jackson and different American leaders perpetrated, and America would have a parliamentary system of presidency….Authorities spending in parliamentary international locations is about 5 p.c of GDP larger.”
— Dylan Matthews in a July 2, 2015 put up on Vox.com: “3 causes the American Revolution was a mistake.”
4. Triggered By the American Flag
“We have now tens of hundreds of thousands of Trump voters who proceed to imagine that their rights as residents are below menace by easy advantage of getting to share the democracy with others. I believe so long as they see Americanness as the identical as one with whiteness, that is going to proceed….I used to be on Lengthy Island this weekend, visiting a extremely pricey buddy. And I used to be actually disturbed. I noticed, you understand, dozens and dozens of pickup vans with you understand, expletives in opposition to Joe Biden on the again of them, Trump flags, and in some circumstances, simply dozens of American flags, which you understand can also be simply disturbing, as a result of primarily the message was clear: ‘That is my nation. This isn’t your nation. I personal this.’”
— New York Times editorial board member Mara Homosexual on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 8, 2021.
3. Standing For Nationwide Anthem is “Affirmation of American Empire”
“It’s a political assertion to pledge allegiance to the flag. It’s a political assertion to face for the singing of the Nationwide Anthem. The actual fact is, Colin Kaepernick and me and lots of different individuals merely have completely different politics. It’s not impartial to pledge allegiance or sing the Nationwide Anthem. It’s an affirmation of the American empire.”
— Political analyst Marc Lamont Hill on CNN Newsroom, September 23, 2017.
2. “Uncomfortable” With Calling Veterans “Heroes”
“I believe it is vitally troublesome to speak in regards to the conflict useless and the fallen with out invoking valor, with out invoking the phrases ‘heroes.’… I really feel snug — ah, uncomfortable, in regards to the phrase ‘hero’ as a result of it appears to me that it’s so rhetorically proximate to justifications for extra conflict, and I don’t wish to clearly desecrate or disrespect reminiscence of anybody that’s fallen, and clearly there are particular person circumstances in which there’s real and large heroism: hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow troopers and issues like that. However it appears to me that we marshal this phrase in a approach that’s problematic. However perhaps I’m fallacious about that.”
— Host Chris Hayes speaking about “The That means of Memorial Day” on MSNBC’s Up With Chris Hayes, Could 27, 2012.
1. July 4th, MSNBC-Fashion: “Imperialism, Genocide, Slavery”
“The land on which they [the Founders] fashioned this Union was stolen. The arms with which they constructed this nation had been enslaved. The ladies who birthed the residents of the nation are second class….That is the imperfect material of our nation, at occasions we’ve torn and stained it, and at different moments, we mend and restore it. However it’s ours, all of it. The imperialism, the genocide, the slavery, additionally the liberation and the hope and the deeply American perception that our greatest days nonetheless lie forward of us.”
— MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry on her eponymous July 1, 2012 program, delivering what she referred to as “my footnote for the Fourth of July.”