Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/20/another-newsreader-calls-mlk-j.html
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Nope. This is like the people who see penises in Disney movies. Call out racism by all means, but don’t let paredolia be your guide.
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FFS white news anchors, practice saying “King” until the “G” is as ingrained in your muscle memory as the “K.” It’ll make everybody’s lives easier.
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Makes you wonder what kind of language these news anchors are hearing off air to be making such obvous slips during broadcast.
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It is Fox so not surprised
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Chances are you don’t accidentally say that unless you’ve said it a lot in the past.
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I know how to pronounce “coon” but I’ve never used it, which I think would prevent me from saying it in error. So while I suspect it’s an error here, I do wonder about the announcer.
I suppose it’s possible he’s influenced by the recent “error” elsewhere, but it’s harder to see that unless he’d just heard the story right before going on the air.
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With every incident, the self-conscious pressure not to say it by accident must be building.
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So, how many times has this particular supposed slip of the tongue happened prior to the rise of trump?
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To be fair, there almost always is a penis (or something else that’s inappropriate for the expected audience) in Disney animation (or on the recalled 1st-run VHS box, in the case of The Little Mermaid) ^^’.
@anon48584343: I’d guess not that often, but probably not for the same reasons you do. How often do YOU say “king”, each day (or similar-sounding words)?
It’s not my job. It is their job to say it correctly.
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Sure. And mistakes happen on-air all the time. Your point?
This is just the 1st “news blooper” YouTube clip I clicked:
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Professional news readers have that a lot.
The problem isn’t “Everyone makes bloopers”. It’s the fact that it’s a respected name, and people notice when it’s not spoken with care.
It then is compounded when people get defensive and spend more time belittling listeners for caring, rather than showing they have the respect for the name that people expected in the first place.
If a newscaster accidentally called Ronald Reagan “Ronald MacDonald”, (an actually possible slip-up) they would get angry responses. If the mis-speakers then told people they should get over themselves, those people wouldn’t feel especially heard or respected.
It’s not just the blooper. It’s also how it’s handled.
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Look it’s a loaded slip and whether it’s intentional or not it’s still loaded and it’s still noteworthy that news anchors keep making the same mistake because honestly it’s kind of an odd one – the two words really aren’t very close at all and most anchors spend a lot of time practicing elocution. Is it the most important thing going on right now? Hell no. Does it point to the ongoing tensions that are being played up in the media almost always with a specifically racist agenda… yeah it kind of does.
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Ugh. I’m always torn on these. On one hand I’ve been saying that name my whole life, so it sort of just rolls off the tongue and I can’t imagine getting tongue-tied over it. On the other hand, in a lot of very similar cases it would be super easy to stumble over that pronunciation and accidentally repeat the vowel from “Luther” there. It is incredibly unfortunate that in this specific case doing so would come out as an abusive perversion of the man’s name racists actually do use.
Without more information about this reporter, I guess I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for his apology sounding sincere and not loaded with the hedges, defensiveness and insincerity Trump has popularized among his goons, but I do wish reporters were more aware of this possibility and said “red leather yellow leather” a few more times before going on camera just to be on the safe side.
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Agreed. But in this case, should the talking head in question be fired? THERE’S the rub! Notice, he wasn’t belittling anyone at all. Nor did the network. Nor is “coon” particularly far-off from “King”, unlike “McDonald” and “Reagan”; that’s not a great metaphor.
That’s where I start to have problems with the general tack here. And no, noticing there’s insufficient proof of intent is not defense of intentional harm, that simple.
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You know why the racial slur slip-ups don’t often get put into those reels?
Because they’re not the funny ones.
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Sure. But my point easily stands: Yes, talking heads bork it ALL THE TIME. I was responding to:
Maybe it would clarify some things if we all tried to understand that racism isn’t always intentional and racism isn’t always purposefully used for harm like a tool. Sometimes it’s more ambiguous but even if it’s considered “friendly fire” sometimes it comes out and it causes damage. There’s no point in denying that it can happen, that it makes things worse, or making it about the person doing the spraying by turning them into a victim. I see a lot of arguing about intent, but intent doesn’t matter when people are talking about effect. The hard truth is sometimes we accidentally realize that we are part of the problem of racism, and sometimes that happens in public because we have a job that requires us to speak frequently. If we’re really honest most of us have some dark shit in our heads, and unchecked in public media figures, yeah it’s an issue. The nature of their job means they need to think about this kind of stuff on a deeper level than “how they sound.”
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Most people say “Ronald McDonald” more than Reagan, so it’s a common flub, not far-fetched.
You can’t honestly argue the weather guy somehow meant Martin Luther Racoon. That seems like a bonkers thing to even bring up. “It was a meaningless slip of the tongue and also that word is okay in some other contexts!”
If someone messes up a professional speaking job, sometimes it bugs their private sector bosses. Take it up with them. People get fired for messing up their Car Wash ad spots.
I’m not surprised that people want to treat messing up MLK’s name less seriously than messing up Big Bubba John’s Kar Wash Kanteen, but it’s a little telling.
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