The stoo-PID-ih-tee of the White House press corps
Some members of the Washington press corps are tittering over a snafu that led the United Nations to publish a draft copy of President Bush’s U.N. speech yesterday on the United Nations website. The draft was marked up and included the cell phone numbers of some of Bush’s speechwriters.
But, more importantly, to the Bush-hating MSM, the draft included phonetic spellings of countries and world leaders. Perfect fodder for the anti-Bush journalists: He can’t even pronounce “Kyrgyzstan [KEYRgeez-stan]” without help! Cackled one writer:
President Bush concluded his remarks several minutes ago, and I just got my hands on the text of his speech. Several of the foreign names in the draft include handy phonetic pronunciations. Want to talk like the president? Here’s how to do it:
* Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan]
* Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
* Harare [hah-RAR-ray]
* Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee]
* Sarkozy [sar-KO-zee]
* Caracas [kah-RAH-kus]Oddly, there are no training wheels in the draft for the toughest name of all: that of Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, which I can’t even pronounce.
Will the nightly news anchors also pile on? If they do, they have some chutzpah. It’s routine for teleprompter scripts to phoneticize proper names and locations.
Show me one of Katie Couric’s scripts that doesn’t have phonetic spellings and I’ll show you a newspaper that doesn’t have corrections every single day of the year.
***
Update: American media all-stars dine with A-jad.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Bush Derangement Syndrome
Pundit & Pundette
» States in dire straits
Riehl World View
» Douthat v Sullivan: Name The "Delusional Liar"Sister Toldjah
» Josh Marshall: Sarah Palin is “probably mentally unstable”Sister Toldjah
» A resolution honoring Michael Jackson? Are you kidding me?Stop The ACLU
» Radical Obama: Anti-American Militarism
I don’t know what they think is so funny; given the quality of their questions and their rude behavior during White House press conferences, most of them look like they could have used some dog obedience training in addition to their “journalism” education.
But remember, being a lib is all about feeling good about yourself, and feeling superior to others, especially those you hate. This was low-hanging fruit for them, and they’re not self-disciplined nor professional enough to pass it up.
Hey I wish they had some of the “handy phonetic pronunciations” at starbucks. I break into a cold sweat every time I try to order something.
Are we sure this was an error on the part of the U.N.? I am so suspicious of that organization, I would be willing to believe that this was done on purpose. Seems to me it would be a really smart thing for anyone giving a speech to phoneticize unfamiliar words.
Starbucks??????
Cmon now….What self respecting conservative would find themselves going in there?????
fan, I dont have any others to choose from here. no dunkin donuts.
I’m with you. I have the distinct feeling that this was no “accident.” Regardless — Good Lord! I cannot imagine trying to remember the correct pronunciation of many countries/leaders. It has to start looking like alphabet soup on some days. The loony left would be cackling if he mispronounced something, so now they cackle because he makes every effort not to mispronounce something. I imagine there will be a pile-on by mid-afternoon at the latest. sheesh
Katie Couric: It’s pronounced SPYOO-tum.
I’ll use it in a sentence:
When the democrat protestor tried to spit on the decorated soldier returning from Iraq, a counter protestor placed the democrat in a choke hold, which prevented the democrat from forming sputum.
And the irony of that statement just went over that reporter’s little head. The dripping condescension in that last part is just the icing on the irony cake.
The folks in the MSM have absolutely no room to talk. You want some fun just watch the local news. The news readers can barely get out a complete sentence. They have absolutely no room to talk.
ajmontana we can’t find a Starbuck’s in our part of Idaho (just too small), but we do have Moxie Java on base and in town. There are much more reasonably priced than the Seattle base company.
Until I can find another place that sells a better Caramel Machiatto ( mah-key-ah-toe ), they’ll still get my occasional $4.00 for one.
I’m guessing MM feels the same. HAH!
Its obvious some of these reporters haven’t been to a sporting event recently and in every stadium, ball park and areana that I have watched a game, the program has a small pronounciation guide to help in learning the players names correctly.
Just check out the NY Yankees for cryin out loud or any NHL team for that matter…
This was a set-up from the State Department, no doubt.
Even though I have a pretty good knack for pronouncing foreign words, when written, I would want some phonetic assistance for public speaking. Make fun if they want, but like most decent, caring people, I prefer to at least get close to the correct pronunciation.
I never hear any of the media make fun of Senator Robert Byrd’s notes. I stopped a video once upon a time and there were nine - count them, nine - lines of type on his papers. Very large, bold print there. Fodder for jokes, if anything is.
lol, Gun. no kidding, how do they get Wong out of Wang? and on the coffee topic, I have a starbucks 2 blocks away, zero other choices unless I want to drive twenty miles to a quiant little place or settle for icky Ihop or fast food barf-O-puke brew.
So he doesn’t have the phonetic spelling, messes up pronunciations, and they mock him.
He has phonetic spellings, and they STILL mock him.
When I auditioned for the role of graduate speaker my senior year of college, we got a copy of the speech from the previous semester’s graduate speaker.
She had an accent, and couldn’t pronunce a few words, so she had phonetic notes in her speech.
Does this make her a moron? No - it makes her a well-prepared speaker who wants to be articulate in order to have her message heard.
The MSM is so pathetic, and we all know the UN is a joke.
John Kennedy pronounced Cuba and Cuban as Cooba and Coober…I guess it’s just a matter of the R and the D.
Unfortunately, this is what happens when you have a president who, after 7 years in office, still says “nu-CUE-larr” instead of “NU-clee-ar”
I still cringe every time he says it
The peanut farmer was a nuclear engineer and he said “nu-CUE-larrr” and the MSM left it alone. I also remember he said physical for fiscal. It does matter if you have a D or R.
My, my, my, fussy lttle things those libtards. Hey, I know an aeronautical engineer that pronounces wing as whing. Drives me up a wall, but the guy is basically a genius. Go figure.
When sending papers to my boss I always highlight the more relevant parts. I’m sure he doesn’t need that, but if he misses something it won’t be due to negligence on my part. I’m quite certain Bush’s people include phonetic aids for much the same reason.
I work with neural networks for a living (ah, the joys of being a comp sci researchers). I dread it everytime someone asks me what field I’m in. I pronounce neural networks as nooral networks.
It’s embarrassing when you can’t even pronounce your job properly
The press corps that gets currency in their little Moon Loon circles for elevating their intellect by demeaning the President of the United States’ is not to be trusted. Just as the fools who went to dinner with Ahmedinejad are not to be trusted- we have in our midst a circle of pundits and journalists who have been hypnotized by a snake.
The spirals they now have in their eyes after Ahmedinejad’s visit will lead them to say he is nothing to be afraid of.
And in the same breath speak of the President of the United States of America as someone who should be feared.
This is madness leading up to a war, the likes of which we have never seen in our history- media psy-ops, traitorous journalists and politicians, dictators currying favor with an Howard Zinn/Noam Chomsky besotted opposition, and bloody attacks on US soil.
The Brian Williams’ and Christiane Amanpour’s of the US media will be call to task for their roles in the lead up to the conflagration- in the best way: by the would-be viewers who will realize they’ve been duped.
The press corps (and more or less 80% of the college educated population) dislikes Bush because of the bad things he’s done as President (You’ve heard the complaints). They make fun of him because he also acts like a moron: “Mandela is dead”, “Is our children learning”, … .
There are plenty of conservatives who do bad things but don’t act like morons: Condi Rice, John Bolton, Newt Gingrich, … .
Seems to be a disease - ask our Hostess about libs making fun of Asian women’s names.
Ahh, and with the arrival of lgm . . .
Let the trolling begin!
Just a thought here lgm and all of our other lefty libtards:
What are you going to do, what are you going to say when a democrat inhabits the White House and says and does the ignorant things that folks like Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, Murtha, Kerry, Kennedy, Edwards, Obama, Byrd, Biden, etc. do on a daily basis now?
And what will you say and do when those same folks begin REALLY stripping away our rights and freedoms like you guys moan and complain that Bush has done (without ever citing any examples of where your freedoms are being taken away.)
QUICK QUIZ for the Libtards: Who said the following?
Give up? Here’s the answer:
It’s from Bill Clinton, the darling (dare I say God figure?) to the left, and he said it on MTV’s “Enough is Enough”. The date was March 22, 1994.
Oh you mean like Obama? - “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.”
Or Al Gore:
and
Things that make you go…hmmmmmmmmm.
If lgm had a woman, he wouldn’t need attention from us. That is the reason he comes here and says the mostes stoopidest thingys.
If we all switched to Ebonics, then the left would have no complaints. That is the language of the left is it not? It seems to flow from Slick Hilly when she addresses an “African American” crowd.
re: bear1909 #22
Whack! Whack!!!
Take that, you stoooopid lefties!
Great post, bear!
That was great. It was only made perfect by the ranting of a moonbat (lgm) trying to one-up him. He whacked himself down. Priceless!
I’d ask if you bothered to take that entire Mandela-reference in its context, but I already know you didn’t. You just parroted what you heard from some other willfully ignorant leftist.
Follow this link to see why I know this is true.
lgm, I’d be a bit more circumspect about tossing about terms like “moron” if I were you.
Looking over that list I was pretty comfortable and would have pronounced them correctly except for one …
Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
I would have screwed up the emphasis as I thought it was pronounced …
Mauritania [MOOR-eh-TAIN-ee-a]
There are new countries showing up all the time and keeping up with the proper pronunciations is a big task …
it only makes sense in that environment to want to not alienate any of the countries whose names you are going to use in the speech … so having a reminder in the form of a phonetic representation is the most effective means of ensuring you don’t mess it up …
another full blown example of BDS …
…it would probably be written on construction paper with crayons.
And I agree with Regulus
While you bring up and mention morons, lgm what does the m stand for in lgm?