Very Serious

Chris Matthews makes something like $5 million a year doing his show. Barnacle and Buchanan are well-paid fixtures on MSNBC every day.

Yet after months since the president nominated her for the Supreme Court not one of these very serious TV politics guys can pronounce “Sotomayor”.

I keep hearing “Soto-my-air” and “Soto-my-ear”.

One of the first things you learn about being in broadcast news is that accurately pronouncing names is an important step to being taken, you know, seriously. I mean, your job is to talk about important people. Maybe these cable news guys aren’t always accurate with what they’re saying, but at the very least they could attempt to get the names right.

I probably shouldn’t be so outraged since guys like Matthews spent the better part of two years referring to our president as “Osama”.

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  • Lexaburn

    Bob, you must understand that “cable news” is full of junk journalism. Matthews, Barnicle (there’s a name, eh?), and all the other news puppets are posers. They commit this type of intellectual verbal flubs on purpose to appeal to half-literate individuals that are prone to watching them, yet are unconcerned about the quality of what they’re viewing. It’s completely affected. Matthews actually broached the subject of his obvious affect by doing a segment on the way the Cheney’s pronounce their last name. So convinced that his viewers were interested in how the way he pronounces “Cheney” (“Cheenee!”) is accurate, he reemphasizes the fact that he’s a vainglorious muttonhead.Oh, and Barnicle’s a plagiarist and a fabricator. Nuff said.Let someone go on their programs and mispronounce their last names – Matt-hyoos and Barn-ack-klee – and you’ll witness them get all huffy.

  • Allonfla

    This is one of pet peeves. I hate it when people don’t take the time to pronounce your name correctly. I’ve met a few people who had to introduce themselves by another name because other people have had a hard time pronouncing it. When you ask them their real name, it is almost always quite simple to pronounce.

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    Just as the first rule of journalism is “get the correct spelling of someone’s name,” so pronunciation is the first rule of TV and radio journalism. My own journalism teacher deducted two letter-grades for a single misspelled name.

  • ec

    Buchanan does it on purpose. He is a racist and this is his way of showing his disrespect for the nominee.

  • Dustee

    “Cheenee” I HATE to hear Chris pronounce Cheney’s name. Even lying Liz Cheney said on ‘morning Joe’ that it’s pronounced the way everyone pronounces it.But it seems that Chris refuses to comply.

  • http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/ Annette

    But it was proven that Liz lied about the pronounciation .. so actually hate to do it but Tweety is correct in the saying of Cheney’s name.. that’s what is so aggravating in his misspeaking of Sotomayor. But I think it is on purpose. He decided with Buchanan long ago that she was wrong on the Ricci case and that was the end of it and has basically been against her ever since. That’s why I didn’t watch the coverage on MSNBC, I watched either on CSpan or CSpan.org.. there is just too much talking when they are doing something on MSNBC..they can’t stop running their mouths…and I want to hear what she is saying not what Tweety has to say or what Andrea “I can’t read” has to say.

  • El Mystico

    This is reminding me of that cloth eared bint from the Texas legislature who wanted Asian people to change their names so that white people wouldn’t have such a hard time… Never mind that the guy she was talking to was named ‘Coh.’ Mr. Coh, yeah, that’s one tough…syllable.This one is especially ridiculous. Because it’s Spanish. It’s phonetic! Just sound out the damn word. So. To. Ma. Yor. Not. Hard. No double l’s to trip you up, Chris.

  • http://nanotyrnns.blogspot.com/ Nanotyrannus

    Exactly, El Mystico. And the accent is on “Ma.” Imagine how many times we’d be corrected if we pronounced “Buchanan” without the accent on the “ch.” Or if we “accidently” said “BuKLANan.” All hell would break loose from the oppressed minority over at FOXNews…

  • El Mystico

    Nano- We should pronounce the ch ‘cha.’ Because I don’t know about you, but in my America, ‘ch’ is not a hard ‘k’ sound! (Man I wish there were an easier way to say this in print, cos it’s much easier and funnier to say it out loud)

  • http://zirgar.blogspot.com ZIRGAR

    Amen. As someone whose ethnic last name is for some unknown reason very unpronouncable to a lot of people, especially if they see it spelled before thy hear it pronounced correctly, I can attest to how infuriating it can be when someone doesn’t take the time to say it properly, even when they have been told schoole don how to say it. It shows real disdain for the person’s heritage and family by not caring enough to get the name right. It can also make the person mispronouncing it look like a total fucking doofus.

  • ceu

    but in my America, ‘ch’ is not a hard ‘k’ sound! So….how is Christ pronounced?