TWO REASONS TO DISLIKE BROADCAST NEWS

posted by James Reel

    NPR news reported this morning that those incendiary Mohammed cartoons were published in a “small Danish newspaper.” Well, I have it on good authority that “Jyllands-Posten, the Danish paper that originally published the 12 caricatures, has a circulation of about 175,000 and is Denmark's largest paper.” I suppose from NPR’s perspective, anything with less circulation than the Washington Post and New York Times is “small.”
    Also, I have to grit my teeth every time Haiti comes into the news. The place was settled by the French, and Haitians speak their own form of French today. U.S. newscasters pronounce the name of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, as if it rhymed with “prints.” But it’s French, folks, and more or less rhymes with “prance.” That’s the only way the “Port-au-” part makes any sense. If I could get newscasters to pronounce that correctly, and if I could strike the redundant “au jus with gravy” from all restaurant menus, the Francophile in me would be … less discontent.