Posted on 02/24/2010 9:39:47 AM PST by melwFN
If you would like a graphic (literal and figurative) demonstration of our nation's greatest failing, sit in front of your television set and watch NBC cover an international sports event, the Winter Olympics, as if only Americans were participating. Every time the Today show's Meredith Vieira stumbles over the name of the Russian figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko (it's pronounced exactly as it's spelled, Meredith, with the accent on the second syllables) and giggles to show that it's OK to be ignorant, I think about all of the announcers from Canada and Europe who pronounce everyone's name correctly. Their employers care about getting it right, and NBC doesn't. Not if the athlete isn't one of us, contributing to the mounting total of "American" medals announced breathlessly every day. Why, anyone would think that these medals were more important than the performance of American students on international comparison tests of achievement in school. In case you're interested, Finland was No. 1 and Canada No. 2 in the most recent international assessment of reading comprehension. The United States was No. 15. U.S.A., U.S.A....
Maybe you can explain why mispronouncing somebody’s name and being proud of it is patriotic.
It has been that way since the snot-nose baby boomers came of age in the mid 1960’s.
In case you were wondering, Finland has a mostly private, magnet school program with very few illiterate illegal aliens.
Hillary and Obama couldn’t pronounce Medvedev.
Just 2 years ago we were told it was patriotic to call Bush “Bushitler”. I Loathe the Pravda Media.
It’s not patriotism that’s the problem here. It’s stupidity and ignorance
... and lets not forget "corpsman", or is that "corpse-man"?
Ted Kennedy couldn’t pronouce Obama.
Actually Susan Jacoby is a religion hater first and foremost. Hating America is a close second.
These globalist and transnationalist types, like this Newsweek idiot, have neglected to tell anyone that becuase of globalization, which they trumpet as a triumph, has inherently produced NATIONALISM/Patriotism.....
I would suggest these idiot crybabies deal with it.
This particular Newsweek idiot should be fortunate he has the luxury to write his whining tidbits in ink.....
NBC’s Today Show’s Olympic coverage is slanted toward the American viewer. I guess they assume Americans want a recap of our performances first thing in the morning.
...stupidity and ignorance. Worship of both seems to have spread over the last 50 years accross the whole western world.
We now have stuff like this plastered all over our public places:
Its also curious that NBC, owned by GE, is the network most in the bag for this admin.
So what? CBC coverage was all about Canadians, except when it was about Lindsey Vonn.
I am very good friends with a Finn who has only been to the U.S. for one week of his whole life. In normal English conversation, you would not know that he isn’t American. The only time he has an accent is when he uses a multi-syllable word that he rarely uses.
He was taught English in school from ages 9-18, but learned how to speak from watching American movies! It’s quite impressive.
They can’t pronounce corpsman either...........
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