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Media Matters
July 16, 2003
NPR's Summer Hiatus? It Sounds Like Summer for Some Listeners
By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
Ombudsman
National Public Radio
Perhaps it's the approach of the dog days, but listeners are finding some odd slips of pronunciations and gaps in reporting among the usually more rigorous and consistent NPR reporters and newscasters.
Some examples:
'Ramsteen' or 'Ramshtine?'
Aaron V. Allen from Lafayette, Indiana, notes that newscasters referred to "jet fighters" flying to the Middle East out of "Ram-steen" Air Force Base in Germany when the correct pronunciation is "Ram-shtine."
Mr. Allen is an air force veteran and observes:
We have had "jet" fighters [with very few exceptions] since
1957 and since Vietnam all of our "fighters" have been "jets"...
He suggests a more accurate sentence would be:
Today, F-16s [or, fighters] flew from "Rhamshtine" Air Base to the Middle East.
Misuse of 'Misspoke'
Allen Kelson notes that an NPR newscast used the wrong term:
I resent your passing along without any apparent consideration the news today that "the White House said the President misspoke" when he said in his State of the Union message that Iraq had tried to acquire uranium for weapons. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language, "misspeak" is a transitive verb meaning "to speak or pronounce incorrectly." The President's diction was no more flawed than usual. He clearly said exactly what his script indicated he planned to say.
Iranian Twins
Beth Haller objected to a report about the Iranian conjoined twins:
When listening to NPR news on the afternoon of July 7, 2003, I heard a reference that was extremely inappropriate. In reporting on the Iranian twins conjoined at the brain, who are currently undergoing surgery, your reporter referred to them as "girls." These women are 29 years old and should be referred to as women.
Language has power, and people with physical disabilities and other impairments are too often inappropriately presented as child-like in the media. I know NPR knows better than to call 29-year-old women "girls" so please watch your language.
A number of listeners also objected to the way in which Bob Edwards described the outcome of the surgery. Scott Holmes from Raleigh, North Carolina, was one of many who said:
Today (July 8, 2003) on Morning Edition during an interview regarding the deaths of the Iranian twins, the interviewer was very insensitive with the question, "Was this a case where the operation was a success, but the patient(s) died?!" Even though it was a clever remark, I felt that it was very callous and below the typical high standards of NPR's reporting.
Bob Edwards says he meant no disrespect and said so on Morning Edition three days later:
There were e-mails strongly objecting to a question I asked of The Baltimore Sun's Erika Niedowski, who was covering the attempt to separate conjoined twins. I asked Erika if this was a case of an operation being successful, though the patients had died? My objective was to discern if some medical history had been made in this rare operation in that the patients were separated, dying later due to loss of blood? A more gifted interviewer would have asked the question with some elegance or more likely would have resisted the attempt to find something positive in a very sad story about two brave young women.
While I agree with the listeners who found the statement unintentionally harsh, I would ask where were the producers or the editors? They should be providing that extra filter to edit out the question that evoked such strong responses from many listeners. Why didn't they and Edwards redo the interview for the next edition of the program?
And listener Philip Decker was impressed by Edwards' response to the criticisms:
Please accept my sincerest thanks for the uncommon sensitivity and eloquence you brought to your follow-on remarks after your story on the death of the two women.
'Basically'
Donna Hopkins notes a tendency by some reporters to overuse the word "basically":
Basically, this is a question about the use of the word basically. Count the number of times your journalists use the word basically in each story. Sad. Very Sad.
The word is overused and is the modern version of ummm, or clearing of the throat. Sad. Very Sad.
Once the word comes out of the mouth, the credibility of the reporter and the seriousness of the subject are lost. Sad. Very sad.
Also, with every utterance, is less and less of a motivation to donate to NPR. Sad. Very sad.
And basically, that's it.
Again, this is the role of producers and editors to give feedback to reporters. When reporters are interviewed by the hosts, producers are there to listen and to make sure that reporters don't indulge in bad or annoying broadcasting habits. The audience is listening but is anyone listening inside NPR?
You Say 'Nee-Jair' But I Don't
NPR reporters and newscasters were all over the map, as it were, in their pronunciation of the African country of Niger.
Some said NY-jer. Others said Nee-ZHAIR. Don Gonyea, who traveled with President Bush and was actually in the country, said Nee-JAY.
Kee Malesky is the reference librarian at NPR. She (correctly, in my opinion) tries to balance accuracy with recognition. Usually she will consult and follow the style guide of the Voice of America (called "pronouncers" in the broadcasting business). But not in this case:
All our sources say NY-jer... which is the way most Americans say it. The VOA doesn't have a pronouncer for the country name, but their situation is completely different from ours -- they are broadcasting to native
speakers. When I gave in to the (NPR) Foreign Desk demand on Guinea, I said I would never be convinced that we should change our pronunciation of Niger. No one in the U.S. would know what we meant if we started saying "nee-ZHAIR."
The reference to Guinea is because of a recent internal argument that NPR should pronounce it as if we were French speakers as are many Guineans. They pronounce it Guin-NAY.
But most English speakers call it GUIN-nee. And NY-jer.
I'm with Kee on this one. Chacun à son goût should not apply in broadcasting.
Cheney's Role
Perrin Lam of San Francisco asks why has NPR not reported on Vice President Cheney's emerging role in the claims that Iraq tried to purchase uranium in Africa?
It has not gone entirely unnoticed on NPR. Daniel Schorr referred to Cheney's role in a commentary on All Things Considered on July 10:
Even in finally climbing down, the Bush administration couldn't quite level with the public. On Monday, the White House said for the first time that the indications of an African uranium deal weren't credible enough and shouldn't have been included in a presidential address, and that was only after retired diplomat Joseph Wilson had gone public with the revelation that he had been sent to Niger in February 2002 on a mission for the vice president's office and had concluded that the uranium deal was a hoax, and that was 11 months before the January 28th State of the Union.
Commentaries are fine and Dan Schorr understands the importance of this story. But where is the NPR News take, or even some investigative reporting? Mr. Lam makes a good point.
Listeners may contact me at 202-513-3246 or at ombudsman@npr.org.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
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