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On D-Day, NPR Highlights Hip-Hop Harpy Who Sings American Dream Is 'A Lie'

By Tim Graham | June 06, 2012 | 23:03

A  A
Tim Graham's picture

While Bill Press hates the National Anthem on air, National Public Radio championed a hip-hop attack on the notion of the American Dream  – on the 68th anniversary of D-Day. They really know how to time these attacks.  NPR’s Morning Edition celebrated a band called Tune-Yards (or, to be completely ridiculous, they spell it tUnE-yArDs) deconstructing My Country ‘Tis of Thee.

Anchor David Greene explained: “That notion of a better tomorrow for those who work hard enough is pervasive in American literature, art and music -- and so is the opposite idea, that the American Dream is just a fantasy.” The story wasn’t really reported, just narrated by the band’s artiste, an angry woman named Merrill Garbus.

MERRILL GARBUS: I'm Merrill Garbus. I started a band called tUnE-yArDs and I wrote a song called "My Country" out of frustration with the current state of the United States.

[Song snippet]



GARBUS: We cannot all have it. You know, that whole idea of the American Dream, we can all have it as long as we work hard, and that is untrue. There are so many ways in our country where we are not giving the same opportunities to everybody.

[Song snippet; “The worst thing about living a lie / Is just wondering when they'll find out.”]

After Garbus described how she played with the “My Country” concept – and the song barely resembles the original – the listener hears more slightly garbled lyrics.

We cannot have it
Well then what do you want me to say to those others
Oh yes, there's a place for you
But that place is underneath the cushion of my behind


We cannot have it
Well then why did you say so
With my eyes open, how can I be happy
With my eyes open

If nothing of this is ours,
How will I ever know when something's mine


GARBUS: ...Because of the structures of power and of money in our country, the American people are often excluded from what's really making the policy. If we're being excluded from our government, how are we included then in this idea of the American Dream?

(Song snippet)

GARBUS: The ability to speak my feelings about my experience as an American is absolutely part of my American Dream.

The story ends with Garbus repeating: “The worst thing about living a lie / Is just wondering when they'll find out.” Then Greene brands it: “This is NPR News.”

It’s absolutely true that part of being American is the right to speak freely that America stinks and the American Dream is a bad joke. But it’s a bit tired that this would be celebrated on a government-funded radio network.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tUnE-yArDs album Whokill was listed number one on the left-wing Village Voice's critics' poll of top albums of 2011.

About the Author

Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Tim Graham on Twitter.
  • Anti-Americanism
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Comments

Let us hope that in the case

Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:27pm.

Let us hope that in the case of this garbus tard and his band his song reveals his future. No doubt this moron hopes to be paid, I doubt he performs for free but if he wants to stay underneath obama's ass and continue to taste the bitter fruit of obama's anus, go for it, it's a free country.

Non, je ne regrette rien. "You aren't angry because I might be a racist, you're angry because you know I'm right".
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Why are tax dollars still susidizing this drivel at NPR??

Submitted by DaMav on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:47am.

Isn't the House controlled by "Republicans"?

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Yes it is, and last winter the H of R voted in the affirmative

Submitted by WhoIsJohnGalt on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 8:12am.

to defund NPR. But it died in the Senate under Dingy Harry. That's why it's so critical to get the Senate back this November. And of course, the presidency, or a veto-proof majority in both houses.

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Garbis states

Submitted by powers2be on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 2:26am.

"There are so many ways in our country where we are not giving the same opportunities to everybody."

Opportunity is defined by the absence of obstruction. Everybody is free to pursue their own dreams and create their own success, in this country, due to the absence of obstruction thanks to the freedoms afforded us by our constitution.

That is to say so far but the Democratic Party is doing their all to change that. These morons equate opportunity with handouts. And that is the sad truth. If they succeed it changing this country, opportunity for all but the ruling class with become unavailable and the handout will come at the end of the bread line. That is, if you get in line early enough.

Just ask the impoverished citizens of past and current communist regimes.

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again.. the left is clueless..

Submitted by Mark81150 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 6:56am.

The American dream has never been about free healthcare or free homes or an office next to the president so your every whim gets a hearing.

The dream is different for everyone, but it always boils down to the basic theme.. America is the promise that I can make my life better and the lives of my children better, That merit is what matters.. not being born royal, or rich, that you can get an education and work your way up higher than where you were.

Only the idiot left turns that into, I want to be a billionare and since I can't because I don't have the talent or the skills.. the dream is a lie.. while they drive their 60,000 dollar car using their state of the art cell phone to drive home in a gated community and send their kids to a private college... but since the guy who sells them their coffee doesn't have these things... (Sob.... sniff snort,..... sob..) the system is broken.. Well.. I never wanted what he's got. I'm happy to live comfortably with my bills paid and a clean and safe home. My kids have their own space,.. phones which I never had,.. don't lack for what they need.. and some of what they want..

and you know what dimbulb liberal?....................... my wife and I make 40,000 a year and we're doing fine.

The America we love says we all have the chance to rise above our level, we all have that chance..

not that the outcome must always be equal...

only a Marxist fool believes in equality of outcome.... we all can't win the Olympics either.. so what..

the biggest lie of all?

This idiot writes a song about the American dream being a lie, then admits.."GARBUS: The ability to speak my feelings about my experience as an American is absolutely part of my American Dream."

well duh...

So she's living her dream by telling one and all that dream is a lie?

Cognitive dissonance. Only liberals can suffer from it at this level, and never come to their senses.

"Evil is powerless, if, the good are unafraid" ~ President Ronald Reagan
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Merril Garbage & the

Submitted by Jerry on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 8:35am.

Merril Garbage & the Yune-Tards, like so many liberals, confuse equal opportunity with equal outcomes. No one is denied the opportunity to pursue their dreams in this great country, unless they are in prison or dead. The outcome on the other hand, is up to you.

She does have a point though, the millions of aborted babies have definitely been denied all opportunities.

When asked if he went to war with Iraq  to derail the impeachment vote:  “I don’t think any serious person would believe that any President would do such a thing." - President Clinton (Dec 1998).
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Thank you.

Submitted by almostacowboy on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 9:33am.

To all the men, women and the families of those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice of offering their lives for their country on that day and all the other days, too.
To all the men and women who offered their lives for their country in Korea.
To all the men and women who offered their lives for their country in Viet Nam.
To all the men and women who offered their lives for their country in Panama and Granada.
To all the men and women who offered their lives for their country in Quwait, Iran, and Afghanistan.
And to all the men and women who offered their lives for their country in all the unnamed places of the world.
God Bless them, their families and the United States of America.

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Well, since I was taught to look for positive...

Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 10:45am.

The beat is okay...

Has anyone actually heard this drivel outside of NPR? Good Lord!

I can't say loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough - If this country sucks so bad, and you hate it so much, WHY the EFF are you still here? If America is sooooo terrible, then GTF OUT!!!

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The sound is okay as it is

Submitted by redfish on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 3:05pm.

The sound is okay as it is with other songs by this group, but the message of the songs really never find their expression anywhere in the music , it listens like an avant-garde experiment with no direction to it....

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