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Media Matters
November 5, 2003
Is it "Spoken" Or "Broken" English on NPR?
By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
Ombudsman
National Public Radio
The NPR audience is referred to as "listeners" for a good reason -- they listen very attentively. A recent spate of phrasings and pronunciations has some listeners asking if the usual attention to detail is slipping. Here are some examples.
"Broken English"
In today's Morning Edition (10/23) report about last night's World Series game, the reporter characterized Alex Gonzalez, who hit the game-winning home run, as speaking in "broken English."
First, Gonzalez' English is not "broken" -- it is just heavily accented. His grammar and syntax are not egregiously incorrect. "Broken English" is a term that was used many years ago to stigmatize people whose first language is not English. It's like a lot of other seemingly innocuous terms, such as "inner city" and "disadvantaged," that are actually quite racist and loaded with hidden meanings... Fifty or more years ago, when journalists routinely identified people by race, ethnicity, etc., I would have expected a reporter to say someone speaks in "broken English." Not nowadays. That phrase needs to be consigned to the linguistic trashcan.
Rosalind Smith
"Horns on the radio...!"
Gretl Collins of Atlanta does not appreciate traffic sounds coming from the radio when she's driving to work:
Okay, I may be picking nits here, but I have to tell you about my adventure. Recently, one foggy Monday morning, driving (late as usual) to work, listening to the local NPR station's broadcast of Morning Edition. I was interested in the story about Maine voting whether or not to allow casino gambling. I was going fast enough to merge into the freeway, when suddenly I heard a burst of horn-blowing, and I immediately freaked out, thinking that there was a vehicle in my blind spot ready to squash me like a bug (I drive a Beetle). Fortunately I didn't go off the road, and by the time I recovered just seconds later, I realized that the horns were on the radio show. Joke's on me, huh?
This has happened before, and it is possibly an accident waiting to happen. I love the formats of the news and features on NPR, including the background filler to give the stories dimension. But please, guys -- just try to remember us poor souls struggling in traffic and go easy on the sirens, horns and (worst of all!) sounds of glass breaking, metal crunching or cats being run through the wringer. I just threw that last item in to see if you were paying attention.
"That sounds like my scooter!"
Others appreciate the audio. Stanley Croyden Jr. wrote about a Morning Edition report (10/18) on people with disabilities by Joseph Shapiro:
As I listened to the background noises in the story, I heard myself saying things like: "I've driven over those cobblestones!" "That sounds like my scooter!" "I bet they didn't have to use any of the subway elevators I have to use to get to work!" And then, "I flipped my scooter last week when we practiced an evacuation drill at work!"
To... Mr. Shapiro..., I've been there and done that... for over three decades. Whether you aired this story because it's National Disability Employment Awareness Month or just because you thought it was a good one, thank you! Any story about someone with a disability who still tries to live a normal and productive life is important!
"Wounds or injuries?"
Dale Clark, from Fairbanks, Ark., has what he calls "nit-picking ankle-biting feedback:"
- injured/wounded: wounds are inflicted injuries, as in hostile actions. Suicide bomb victims suffer wounds, not injuries.
- jail/prison: less or more than a year?... one goes to prison for five years, to jail for six months.
"Holy(?) Cities"
Charles Megerman wonders about applying subjective descriptions to cities in Iraq:
I wrote NPR about a month ago asking why Najaf is referred to by the reporters as "the holy city of." Najaf is no more or less holy than Tokyo, Jerusalem, Rome, Pittsburgh, etc. Today another reporter referred to "the holy city of Karbala." I have the same question and the same issue. What's up?
"Speaking through a translator?"
Andrew D. Smith, of Hartford, Conn., thinks that the use of the term "interpreter" is wrong:
On Tuesday's report (9/23) concerning the statements made by Jacques Chirac at the United Nations, the NPR reporter twice said that he was "speaking through an interpreter." Wasn't Jacques Chirac simply speaking? And weren't we listening through an interpreter?
The need for an interpreter was ours, as English language listeners. Somehow the phrase used by the reporter implied that Mr. Chirac lacked the ability to be understood and that an interpreter was his need, not ours.
Mr. Smith is right. President Chirac speaks to us through a "translator," not an "interpreter."
"Cooler weather or cooler temperatures?"
Jay Weedon raises an issue about "temperatures:"
With the coverage of the California fires this week, I hear several times a day an NPR reporter saying something along the lines of "Temperatures are expected to be cooler tomorrow."
A temperature can be neither hot nor cold; the *weather* can be hot or cold. Temperature is a numeric measure of kinetic energy, and should therefore be described as high or low, not hot or cold. In the same way, a price cannot be expensive or cheap, just high or low.
*Commodities* can be expensive or cheap.
"You say sojers and I say soldiers…"
Of course, no column on language usage is complete without a listener's comments on NPR pronunciations. Here's a pronunciamento from a listener who asks that her name not be included.
I listen to NPR because it is the only place to get the quality and amount of news I want, that is why the speaking style of many of your newsreaders and reporters bothers me.
Many of them say "aw" instead of "o," as "ecawnomy" for "economy."
Some readers say "sojers" for "soldiers."
Some say "industrul" for "industrial"
Some say "jer" for "juror."
Most say "tearist" for "terrorist."
Some say "tore" for "tour."
Some say "Bawb" for "Bob."
Others say "tode" for "told."
Some say "veekle" for "vehicle.'
Some say "busted" when they mean "broken:" "...boarding up busted windows..."
Some are low talkers who trail into inaudibility as they do an intro or interview. This must drive your engineers crazy, since they don't even ride the "pot" anymore.
For the non-techies among us, "riding the pot" means adjusting the recording levels as the program goes to air or while it is being recorded. At NPR, audio engineers still ride the pot, often making them the last refuge of radio standards, but that's a subject for another column.
Even so, producers and editors should be listening before the story hits the airwaves. Editing out mistakes, or getting the reporter to re-record the script is something that should be a routine part of the process that leads to quality radio journalism.
When the listeners become the inadvertent agents of quality control at NPR, it's already too late.
Listeners can contact me at 202-513-3245 or by email at ombudsman@npr.org.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
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