I was watching the Olympics yesterday and saw Michael Phelp’s earn his first medal of 2008… he was thrilled and excited. Later I watched as he received his gold medal and then how the Chinese completely butchered our National Anthem. They didn’t start it at the beginning of the anthem and then the whole thing sounded odd… but it was the ending that raised eyebrows. Right when the song was before the point of “land of the free and the home of the brave”… the song completely stopped.
Michael laughed it off and President Bush along with other supporters continued to wave their flags as if the anthem was still playing… to show their support.
So I went to YouTube to see if anyone had posted this embarrassment and sure enough one person had. It was entitled “China Messes Up National Anthem During Michael Phelps Gold Medal Ceremony.” At first I thought it was a little funny because it could be a legitimate mistake… and I probably would have just continued to feel that way.
Until this morning when I returned to YouTube. I clicked on the video (which is still in my favorites and will continue to sit there… see below) and was greeted with the message “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by a third party.” Interesting. Well now… how many geniuses does it take to figure out that it was officials or someone representing officials from China who had it removed. I don’t think it even takes a genius. YouTube rules state that certain items such as concerts or sporting events may be removed due to copyright issues… but it just seems odd because other sporting clips are still on the site. And I know it may very well be NBC who came along and removed it… however…
Yes… I was informed that we have made errors with other country’s anthems… told we put flags upside down… but this seems different somehow just because of the differences between China and America and what our anthem says and based on which part was cut off.
So far we’ve had a man killed who coincidentally was related to a former Olympian and related to a coach at the current Olympics and now they’re sending messages that having a song say “land of the free and home of the brave” is not allowed in a communist nation. I hope we demolish them with the number of medals our Olympians earn.
God bless America… land of the free and the home of the brave!!
As you can see by a screen shot of my favorites… there were 1,473 views and 34 comments. My comment was about the 5th, so I have no idea what others were saying about this video. It was published on August 9, 2008 at 8:24pm and lasted a total of 2 minutes 20 seconds. Wow… who would have thought so much could be said in so little time.
Amendment: Just went back to YouTube to look for other videos and sure enough there was one called US Anthem chopped at Beijing 2008 that has also been removed. Interesting, isn’t it.
New Amendment: Just found ONE video that hasn’t been sniped YET… probably because the title doesn’t mention anything about the anthem. Here it is… until it is removed:
REVISED: 8/12/08… guess this video has been removed as well… I’m sure the whole thing was just a bizarre accident. No really.. forget the whole thing… forget… forget… forrrrrrrrrget!!
