WHO SEZ YA HAFTA BE LITTERITE TO OPPERATE TEXT GENNERATORS ON TEEVEE?? WE ENDEAVOUR TO PRESERVE MISTAXE WE AXUALLY SAW OR AUDIBLED:
KWTV 9 OKC had a graphic behind the anchor reading ``Court Marshall`` --- hmm, would that refer to the first chief justice of the SCOTUS? No, about prosecutions in Iraq, May 19, 2004 at 2304 UT. After the item, it still had not been corrected two minutes later!
The PBS documentary "Cadillac Desert" (based on the book by Mark Reisner): I believe the narrator was Cecily Tyson. She mispronounced "Tulare" (to larry) as "too larr." Nobody bothered to correct this "actress" of her error. It wouldn't be so bad if it was once or twice but it was throughout the documentary! Being that I was raised there, I went nuts. I've always wondered if the producers were afraid they might offend her. One last note: other than the above complaint, "Cadillac Desert" was very good. If you want to understand the western United States, read the book or see the documentary. It is about the history of water development of the region. (Richard On The Left Coast, Oct 3, 2002, swprograms)
Fox News Sunday, March 24, 2002, repeated on Fox News Channel at 2347 UT, ``Below the Fold`` segment exposing mistakes of others: about some translators being sent to Monterey, California (where there is a well-known language school) instead of where they were supposed to go, Monterrey, Mexico, was illustrated with a map graphic showing Monterrey approximately where San Luis Rio Colorado is, right near Yuma, Arizona. Well, it was barely across the border, anyway, I think. Such confusion could further be avoided if the one in New Lion were always referred to as King Mountain...
Where is Tanzania? On ABC World News Tonight, Dec. 14, 2001, Peter Jennings introduced a report on al-Qa`eda connexions with trade in the gem Tanzanite, by putting it in ``southern Africa``. Well, sort of, but it`s more eastern than southern. In fact, it was once called German East Africa.
The venerable Harry Smith does it again. After all this, on December 10, 2001, A&E Biography of the Year lead-up, he and/or his writers, identified Pakistan as an ``Arab country``. By now it should be seeping into some American numb skulls that Arab is not synonymous with Moslem.
Holiday second-string woes. On ABC World News Tonight, Thanksgiving, Nov 22, 2001 at 2349 UT, substitute anchor Charlie Gibson in a story about Vatican honcho PJP2 speaking via Internet instead of in person, referred to ``the South Pacific nation of Oceana`` !! Charlie must be living in 1984! First of all, the term is Oceania, with ``Oceana`` a too-common mistake. There is no such ``nation`` as any SWL, DXer or Philatelist surely knows; it`s just a term for the Pacific area in general. Bet regular anchor Peter Jennings would not have made such a mistake (gh)
CNN Captioning has got to be the worst anywhere. If we tried to document every mistake this file would be monstrous, but here`s one, during Bush`s presidential radio address Nov 3 after 1506 UT: ``Center for Decease Control`` in Atlanta. We often wonder if the captioners are hearing-impaired themselves or uneducated in basic English. They couldn`t be lip-reading in this case...
Meteor vs. meteorite: Scott Simon, NPR Weekend Edition Saturday, doesn`t know the difference, since his opener at 1300 UT November 3 talked about this being the anniversary of a woman in Alabama being hit by a ``meteor``.
I can't, for the life of me, remember exactly when this happened ... but it was in the early- to mid-90s. Paul "Rhymin'" Simon was the subject of some controversy when he decided to tour South Africa, against the wishes of certain activists. Watching a report on WMAQ-TV (Chicago's NBC Channel 5), the graphic depicted /Senator/ Paul Simon instead of /Singer/ Paul. The anchor straightened things out, later in the 'cast. -- Geno, WSM/Nashville OCT 28, 2001
CNN fuzzy on geography: Czech Republic labelled Switzerland September 25, 2001 in a screen shot by Kai Ludwig: http://www.trsc.com/musings.html
Yarber & Sons furniture in OKC must be going for the illiterate market, with an ad seen on KAUT-43 May 18 at 2023 UT for DINNING ROOM SETS. Or is that the new term for children`s rooms... (gh)
WMAQ-Channel 5 almost got it right in coverage of the surprise 2001 Tony Award for regional theaters given to Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater. In a piece that aired repeatedly over the weekend, the NBC-owned station showed videotape of Chicago's Vic Theatre instead. (There's no connection between the two.) Channel 5 bosses blamed the mistake on an assignment editor.
Nothing can ever top Channel 5's greatest graphic gaffe, however, when a story on the death of movie producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli in 1996 was illustrated by a stalk of the vegetable broccoli (Robert Feder column, Chicago Sun-Times via Mike Cooper)
W versus K: Riders Radio Theatre again betrayed their easternity by saluting a station of the week and getting their call letters wrong: ``WOPN in Columbia, Missouri``. Of course, it`s KOPN as with very few exceptions is the case west of the Miss2ippi. As heard via South Dakota March 31 at noon CT. A nice idea, but BTW, Riders` SOTW are sometimes no longer even affiliates, the reruns are so old. And it`s not unusual for NY-based network TV shows to misidentify their affiliates either verbally or visually, usually W- instead of K-. It hardly ever happens the other way around, have you noticed? (gh)
OREGON: amongst Brits, Mitchigan and Connekkticut take the cake, but among Americans, especially of the Lower 46, Oregon must be the most mispronounced state. Any native will confirm it`s ``Orrygun``, but Far Easterners like Baba Wawa on 20-20 recently call it ``Ore-ee-gone``. We also heard that from Texas Bix Bender, announcer of Riders Radio Theatre, supposedly Far Western show originating in the ``Queen City of the West,`` Cincinnati, Ohio! West of what? Dayton? But that`s all in fun.
CHOCOLAT : I`m going nuts fending off all the butcherings of this film title. Most Americans haven`t a clue about basic French pronunciation (which is certainly called for from the spelling, even though it is not a film made in France.) Even producer David Brown said on CBS Sunday Morning, ``I`m told the T is not pronounced`` but then pronounced the CH as TCH instead of SH!! So please note: it is ``sho-koh-LAH``. The O`s are not real long, but not short ``aw`` as these ignorami sometimes say (gh)
Hi, Glenn! Saw this on the NBC Nightly News evening edition, at 2355 UT March 19: In a story on the foot & mouth disease situation in Britain, a farmer spokesman was identified on the bottom of the screen as being a member of the "Farmers Union of Whales". Must be sea-farming, I guess... :-) 73, Will Martin
From CNN International -- the BBC-styled weekend service of CNNfn. This is from the 9:00am EST edition of "CNN World News" 4-March. In a story on the historical background of the Israeli-Arab conflict, a graphic indicated that "MOSLEMS BELIEVE THAT MOHAMMED ONCE GAVE A SERMON ON MOUNT ARAFAT". Oh really? :) I wasn`t aware that a mountain had been named for the Palestinian leader, much less that it was done so long ago. Perhaps they meant Mount Ararat? (Rob Hoffmann, Richmond, VA)
LATER: Oops, I also heard a clear ``Mount Arafat`` on an NPR newscast Sat, March 3 at 1400 UT from Kate Seely, Bahrein, about the Hajj. There is a Mt. Arafat in Sa`udi Arabia, presumably no connexion to the Palestinian leader. See http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/03/15/hajj/ (gh)
``san-TAIR-ee-uh`` was the way Andrew Green repeatedly pronounced the Cuban cult san-teh-REE-ah at the end of Reporting Religion on BBCWS 0144 UT January 7, 2001. No less superficial was the brief item itself.
``GUTIEST BUSINESS WOMAN`` read a graphic pertaining to Oprah Winfrey on KOCO TV 5 news January 5 at 2316 UT. I didn`t hear how they pronounced it, if at all. Guess it means she has the biggest gut?
CNN does it again: Dec 25 at 1556 UT, graphic accompanying ``Partial Solar Eclipse`` was a shot of a TOTAL solar eclipse with the diamond-ring effect, something no one can see from this one!!
``Stay tuned for Theatre Talk next Thursday afternoon at 3:53`` said the KCRW staff announcer the previous Thursday Dec 14 at 3:59. Sorry, I will NOT STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT 167 HOURS AND 54 MINUTES just to hear the next edition of this program. This misspeaking I hear more and more by dimwitted announcers. They should say, ``Tune in Again`` -- perhaps they have been brainwashed by consultants never to hint that anyone might actually tune away, ever, from the station!
``Let your facets drip``, says KFOR-TV Dec 10 at 2303 UT, when Fahrenheits were falling into single digits.
``GWB is working to REVENGE his father`s loss to Bill Clinton.`` It`s the amiable Harry Smith again on A&E, mixing up REVENGE with AVENGE.
``St. HEL-uh-nuh`` was the way narrator David McCollough insisted on pronouncing Napoleon`s last QTH, repeatedly toward the end of the PBS miniseries in Nov. Those of us who participated in Radio St. Helena Day soon learnt, if we needed to, that the locals pronounce it ``huh-LEE-nuh``. Montana and Oklahoma may differ.
``Ridings`` in Florida are being recounted, according to RCI news at 0500 UT November 19. Not unless there are Congressional Districts in Quebec! Of course, Florida is full of Quebecois neige-oiseaux, but they`d better not be voting in the USA...
Sen. Joseph ``Leiberman``, as spelt by KOAT-TV, Albuquerque, at 0404 UT Thursday Oct 26 in local news upon his visit to New Mexico
"Santa Fe," one of many Saint-street names in LA, was identified as the name of a saint by Charles Osgood, CBS Sunday Morning, October 22. Nice try, but unlike all the other saint-names, this one simply means "holy faith," not the name of an individual.
"CHICK-a-saw" was the way Bill Geist pronounced the town of Chickasha, Oklahoma, accompanied by a map centred upon it. Trouble is, as any Okie knows, it is pronounced CHICK-a-SHAY. This was during A&E`s Travels With Harry, Oct 21 Sat at 1500-1600 UT, which we nevertheless recommend highly -- mostly retreads of CBS post-Kuralt 'On the Road' features. This one was about a guy who flies around OK eating in and reviewing fly-in restaurants at small airports. We appreciate host Harry Smith, too, even if he doesn't know how to pronounce Edinburgh.
"WITCHITA," Kansas, on CNN Headline News temperature roll, 2109 UT Sunday October 15.
EDINBURGH, Scotland, was pronounced countless times on A&E`s Oct 13 BIOGRAPHY of Mary, Queen of Scots, with a hard G at the end, instead of UR-uh. Narrator: Harry Smith. No, this isn`t graphic, but closest thing to it...
"SAN JOSI", COSTA RICA on CNN World Report about a novela on Radio Monumental, 1851 UT Sunday September 3.
"FAYETTVILLE, ARKANSAS" on Newsline9, KWTV OKC, UT Tue Aug 29 at 0311. It's too far across the border to keep up with all those E`s.
"SANTE FE" and 122nd Street was a subtitle at 0307 UT Sat Aug 26, no doubt a crime scene, during KWTV OKC local news. Santa Fe, as in the capital of New Mexico, but here a street name, has got to be the most frequently misspelt American city, and it`s a REALLY dumb mistake which keeps on happening. The only conceivable explanation is that people think the end of the first word has to match the second word! No other Santa-city ever gets such mistreatment.
"McALISTER" was the way ABC`s 20/20 misspelt the executing OK prison town McALESTER at 0236 UT August 19.
BROWNVILLE was the south Texas city in the path of a tropical storm shown on a PBS NEWSHOUR map at 2254 UT August 14, instead of BROWNSVILLE.
Audio Gaphe: On NPR`s Weekend Edition Sunday, July 30 at 1315 UT, Brian Naylor (we checked the spelling), consistently referred to Gloria Allred several times as "Alldred" (or is that "Alldread"?). We thought she was somewhat more menacing when her hair was jet-black.
Grafic Gaphes [NON]: CNN corrected their "Prescription Drugs" graphic, seen July 13 UT 0304 on Headline News. (Ivan Grishin)
July 13, 2000, 0100-0200 UT on CNN: "RIBERO, NEW MEXICO" shows as location of the non-late Don Imus during the entire hour, guest on Larry King. It`s actually RIBERA. Another appearance a few weeks later, date not noted, had it right. They must read this page...
June 27, 2000, 1412 UT on CNN: ``PERSCRIPTION DRUGS``