By Collin Roth

Apparently The Nation magazine knows something nobody else does.

On Tuesday, a Daily Kos blog gleefully reported and posted a video of a Wisconsin high school band playing what they hoped was a pro-union song at the Rose Bowl parade. The truth turned out to be otherwise.

During the Rose Bowl parade on Monday, the Pulaski High School marching band from Pulaski, Wisconsin marched towards the grandstand playing the familiar fight song “On Wisconsin” before switching to a rendition of what Pulaski Superintendent Dr. Mel Lightner called the “Red Wing polka.” Pulaski is a traditional Polish community with an annual polka festival each year and Dr. Lightner said the rendition of “Red Wing” was a tribute to the band director’s grandmother.

What perhaps the Pulaski marching band and the band director didn’t know was that Woody Guthrie composed a popular pro-union anthem titled “Union Maid” to the very tune of “Red Wing.” Hence why the Daily Kos believed the rendition of “Red Wing” was an “awesome statement” against Governor Scott Walker.

But Media Trackers debunked this perception on Tuesday when we contacted Pulaski Superintendent Dr. Mel Lightner who claimed the band director had “never even heard of the song ‘Union Maid.’” Dr. Lightner went on to say it was “simply hilarious” and that “they [the Daily Kos] are just trying to spin it their way.”

Nevertheless, The Nation magazine published an article on Wednesday in the wake of Dr. Lightner’s denials to Media Trackers, WTAQ, and WTMJ that insists that the Pulaski marching band was playing “Union Maid.” Of course, since there are no lyrics to a marching band song, it would seem one can believe whatever they want. But The Nation managed to accuse Media Trackers of not doing our due diligence to get to the bottom of the story:

Already there is a push by a right wing blog that calls itself Media Trackers stating that the band was actually playing “Red Wing,” an obscure polka from which the melody of “Union Maid” was taken. Their blog includes a quote not from the band leader or any of the students, but the district superintendent, insisting that there was no political message meant whatsoever, just a marching band straying from their prepared tune to play an obscure polka while the band members grinned with mischievous joy.

Of course the irony is, The Nation did not contact ANYBODY about this incident. Not the superintendent, not the band director, and certainly not any of the band students.

And their claim that “the band members grinned with mischievous joy” is utter nonsense. Students in the band were playing their instruments and enjoying their opportunity to perform at the Rose Bowl. When one watches the video, for most of their performance you can’t even make out any of their faces. And when there are close-ups, the students are playing their instruments with no discernible “mischievous grins.”

Nevertheless, apparently rumor, hope, and perception pass for journalism at The Nation magazine. One should not bother the author’s Dave Zirin and Alexander Billet with the facts. They and their publication are clearly uninterested.