Melissa Harris-Perry Pronounces Marine Corps Motto Semper 'Fee'

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Call it Melissa Harris-Perry's "corpse-man" moment . . .

In a segment on the role of the US military during her MSNBC show this morning, Harris-Perry, quoting the Marine Corps motto, pronounced it Semper "Fee." Marines of course pronounce it "fye." Perry surely meant no disrespect. But it is a mark of how detached she and so much of the liberal media is from military culture that she could make such a mistake.

View the video here.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Melissa Harris-Perry has her “corpse-man” moment. Ping to Today show list.

[mkmensinger]

Don’t forget Obama referring to Navy “Corpse-men”.

[mkmensinger]

Beat me by 7 seconds!

[nascarnation]

Wake Forest and Duke and no Latin skills?

[Dilbert San Diego]

This is the same girl who wears tampons as earrings.

[cdcdawg]

She might want to just stop talking. It would be best for everyone.

[dainbramaged]

Melissa, you ignorant slut.

[TheGipperWasRight]

I’d love to hear her or Obama pronounce colonel.

[bigbob]

oh please, you could tell her the Marine Corps motto was “Be Prepared” and she’d mindlessly repeat it, like they all do...

[MrEdd]

When I was in, we generally didn’t contract Fidelis.

[latina4dubya]

well, i know it is Semper Fi with the long I... however, if she were reading it “phonetically” in Latin, it would be Semper Fee... Semperfeedelis in the Ecclesiastical pronunciation... in the Classical it would be SemperfIdelis with the short I... :)

[PLMerite]

Oberst oder Standartenfuhrer.

[stormer]

Not to necessarily agree with Harris-Perry, but fi is an abbreviation of the word fidelis. The first I in fidelis is a long I and is correctly pronounced like the I in machine (think Adeste Fideles), ergo her pronunciation.

[Lazamataz]

“Semper Fee” translates to “Always Charge Money”.

[Enterprise]

Melissa you ignorant ________ .

[Hardastarboard]

My local cable provider’s program description lists her as a political scientist. If she’s a political scientist, I’m a rocket scientist (the pointy end goes toward the sky).

[onedoug]

"Be Prepared"

Boy Scout Handbook, 1960. Beside The Bible, one of my essentials.

[CrappieLuck]

Well that explains why in the movies that always say “CHARGE!!!!”

[andyk]

And that’s exactly what she will say. She was simply falling back to the correct pronunciation of “fee-delis”, and didn’t realize that the Corps had taken artistic license...yadda yadda.