President Bush says "The Star-Spangled Banner" should only be sung in English. I don't get it. Our national anthem is about the spirit of the country. What difference does the language make? I guess he's playing to his political base.
The most interesting part of the story to me was the different ways the New York Times and Washington Times covered the story. Both paper's quoted Mr. Bush directly, and mentioned a proposed resolution by Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., supporting the English version of the national anthem, but that's where the similarities end. The NY Times version quotes the song's producer and his reasons for producing a Spanish-language version of the anthem. The Washington Times story quotes no one in support of singing the anthem in Spanish and relies heavily on sources who actively support English as the national language. In fact, some of the Washington Times' sources make their living by promoting English. Can you say "conflict of interest"?
While I think the NY Times story isn't as strong as it could be (Why didn't they talk to more sources?), it presents the issue in a much more balanced way than the Washington Times. I know that shouldn't surprise me, but it does. I still think of journalists at purveyors of truth. My mistake.
More later,
Russ
No comments:
Post a Comment