How could she?

Following Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s lip-synched (or possibly not) rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” during President Obama’s inauguration, I was shocked and appalled—at the media’s obsession with whether or not she lip synched.

From the front page of the Drudge Report to the top story on Gawker and even the evening news—et tu, Brian Williams?—the former Destiny Child member was top of mind on Tuesday.

First, it was generally felt in the Twittersphere that Beyoncé did a bang-up job on the national anthem.

Then, the New York Post reported that a representative from the Marine band, which accompanied the anthem, said Beyoncé’s performance was pre-recorded.

However, another rep from the band refuted the claim, saying the musical accompaniment was pre-recorded. The Marine band couldn’t say whether Beyoncé’s portion was pre-recorded, according to the rep.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that Beyoncé dramatically yanked her earpiece out midway through the song. For someone who isn’t lip-synching it would be considered a bold move.

Not since Milli Vanilli has lip-synching taken such a prominent role in our national discourse.

But for whom is this a PR issue? Obama? Beyoncé? The Marine band? Beyoncé’s husband, Jay-Z? The NBA team that Jay-Z partly owns, the Brooklyn Nets? Nets center Kris Humphries, who is still technically married to Kim Kardashian?

Damn! Should have known a Kardashian was behind this.

The political right is predictably politicizing it, including this crafty paragraph in a Fox News’ report:

“Singer Beau Davidson, who sang the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ several times at Mitt Romney's campaign stops, says he delivered all of his performances of the song live, and only once in his career sang over a previous recording, and that was because he had bronchitis.”

See that, American—clearly Republicans don’t need to lip-synch!

What’s most shocking part of this story, however, is that apparently at no point did any right-thinking newsperson say, “Wait a hot minute, here, team—there are clearly more important stories going on in the world.”

UPDATE: More sources are weighing in, saying Beyoncé did, in fact, lip sync the national anthem. 


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