On his Sirius radio show, Stern played what he claims to be the “board feed” from a performance the singer did last November on NBC’s “Today” show. And let’s just say the clip doesn’t present B, who’s pretty much established the fact she can sing, at her best.

Listen for yourself (you might want to put your dog outside first though).

Now here’s what “Today” show viewers heard (the song starts around 2:22 into the clip).

Yes, what Stern played is so bad it makes your teeth hurt. But there’s really no proof that it’s a genuine recording of what was going from Beyoncé’s mic to the sound board – it would be as easy to screw up someone’s voice with AutoTune as it is to fix it. If you listen carefully, even the music in the clip sounds wonky, which makes me suspicious of the recording’s authenticity.

Even if the clip is real, there are a lot of things that can be said in Beyoncé’s defense. If you look closely at the second clip I posted, you’ll see that she doesn’t appear to be wearing in-ear monitors, something most artists use these days so they can hear the music as it’s truly being played instead of relying on monitor speakers in front of them.

Next, she’s performing outdoors in what is essentially a canyon between two buildings and the band is standing way behind her. That means she was most likely hearing not only the musicians standing in back of her, but also the echo of what they were playing. If you’ve ever tried to sing under similar circumstances, you know those conditions can seriously affect your ability to stay in tune.

Then you have to add in the racket the crowd was making. And we won’t even go into the amount of ambient noise that exists on the streets of New York City.

Of course, I’m not the only one defending B. Her father, Mathew Knowles, is fighting mad and sent a statement to TMZ.com.

“If no one took the time to look at the biggest Inauguration in the history of America then shame on them.

“If no one took the time to listen to Beyoncé sing ‘America the Beautiful’ and ‘At Last’ at the Neighborhood Ball for the first dance of President Obama and the First Lady, and they question Beyoncé’s vocal ability, they’ve gotta be an idiot.

“At 12 years into her career, the last thing someone should be questioning is her vocal ability.

“That would be like questioning if Kobe Bryant could shoot a jump shot. The vocals were obviously altered.”

Well put Mr. Knowles!

If the whole thing was simply a joke perpetrated by Stern, as some commenters in the blogosphere are asserting, I think he might have chosen the wrong target this time. Mathew Knowles doesn’t mess around.