One of his trademark fits of pique
So of course we get this:
Thanks What a Maroon for alerting us to that.
“So what?!” says Tucker Carlson in fake fox anger.
Margaret Sullivan in the Post:
Not only did Carlson mispronounce it, but when a guest went out of his way to politely correct him, Carlson had one of his trademark fits of pique.
The exchange went like this:
“Tucker, can I just say one thing?” said Richard Goodstein, an adviser to Democratic campaigns.
Carlson: “Of course.”
Goodstein: “Because this will serve you and your fellow hosts on Fox. Her name is pronounced ‘comma’ — like the punctuation mark — ‘la.’ Comma-la.”
He went on: “Seriously, I’ve heard every sort of bastardization of her —,” and then Carlson broke in: “Okay, so what?”
With his familiar mocking laugh, Carlson demanded to know what difference it made if he pronounced it KAM-a-la, with the first syllable like “camera.” Or Ka-MILL-a. Or, properly, Comma-la.
The difference it makes is it’s just basic. Get people’s names right. Oh and while we’re at it, get the adjectival form right too – it’s not “Democrat party” and “Democrat senator,” the adjective is Democratic. British news media please note.
In Carlson’s case, he used his guest’s correction to begin one of his typical rants. Making a fuss over her name, he argued, only proves how Democrats don’t want Harris challenged in any way at any time.
You don’t “challenge” political figures by getting their names wrong. You do it by making substantive criticisms of their actions and/or policies – not their looks, not their clothes, not their accessories: their actions and/or policies. You can do that and pronounce their names correctly both at once.
It seems pretty clear that he had his “trademark fit of pique” in his back pocket and was waiting for the right opportunity to pull it out. He just couldn’t wait to claim that “she’s immune from criticism” because of her race and sex, but picked perhaps the worst moment to do it.
(And now I’m imagining him in high school. Classmate: “Tucker, your fly is open.” Tucker: “Oh, so no we’re not allowed to dress like we want? We have to follow some arbitrary ‘dress code’ just to be politically correct?”)
Maybe if everyone started to mispronounce his name and began calling him “Fucker Carlson.” It’s only out by one phoneme.
Mispronouncing a name is a technique the right often uses to make the point that the name is “wrong”. It is different, not a standard name, and therefore emphasizing that she is not white, not male, not “American” enough to be VP. It emphasizes her “otherness”. Never mind that she is not “other”, she meets the requirements of the Constitution to be president (and therefore VP), and that her name is just her name, not a label to mark her as “not right”.
This exchange was another dog-whistle, IMHO.
What difference does accuracy in reporting make?
Oh yeah, we’re talking Fox here so that would be none.
Good thing for all these asshats that my telekinetic abilities have yet to be perfected.
It’s probably the first time he’s ever been asked to say a Black woman’s name correctly. He thinks it’s beneath him. I bet he just calls all his maids “Maria” no matter what their names are.
iknklast,
Case in point: the elder Bush made it a point to pronounce Saddam “sa-DAMN” during the Gulf War.
@YNNB – or Trucker.
Most people are embarrassed if they mispronounce a name and if it’s unfamiliar, they ask how it is is pronounced. It’s a broadcaster’s job to get it right.
“Maybe if everyone started to mispronounce his name and began calling him “Fucker Carlson.” It’s only out by one phoneme.”
Sadly for you, we were thinking the same thing today. You may want to get that checked out…
http://farcornercafe.blogspot.com/2020/08/fox-and-fiends.html
To be fair, Richard Goodstein is one of the most infuriating partisan hacks I’ve ever encountered. He’s Sean Hannity bad. Not blowing up at him requires saintly patience, and that’s something Tucker Bow-Tie Carlson never learned as a kid.
Also to be fair, name mispronunciation is a common (Commola?) thing. JKR’s name is always mispronouned. (PSA: it rhymes with “bowling”, not “howling”.) Brits seem to have an aversion to the correct pronunciations of “Obama” and “Nissan”. (Like, I realize that double consonants in English words indicates a short vowel. Nissan is a Japanese company with a Japanese name, and all Japanese vowels are pronounced like in Italian.) Call it provincial, but people tend to mispronounce names that are unfamiliar or that contain phoneme combinations not common to their language, dialect, and regional accent.
Those two points made, it shouldn’t be that much of an ask for a guy with one of the most, if not the most, popular news shows on television to take the time to learn how to say major politicians’ names. Not just as a matter of respect, but as a demonstration of professional pride and commitment to truth. Seriously.
Don’t the Brits get “Obama” right but “Barack” wrong? They rhyme the “rack” bit with “back” instead of “rock.”
Harris should replace her “pronouns” with a pronunciation guide.
Nullius, that’s true, and I often have to ask my students how their names are pronounced. But to me the bigger thing is not mispronouncing her name, but the fact that even when corrected, he is not willing to take the advice. He needs to get a better grip.
O’Bama has one of those difficult Irish names, you know.
There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama:
https://youtu.be/DerVmiZeUDw
I have a name that gets butchered routinely (well, two actually since many people also mispronounce Pliny…). My favorites are those who tell me I’m not pronouncing it correctly due, no doubt, to their deep knowledge of world naming conventions.
On a positive note, it’s a nice phone filter when someone calls looking for ‘mispronounced X’. The next sound they usually hear is a click.
Of course I’ve come to expect very little from Foxdroids, so my goto position is that the actual intent was to convey, “What the hell kind of a name is Kamala? Why can’t these people have normal names instead of these made up ones?”
Pliny, are you Aaron Block IRL?
Alas, even if English-speakers with no knowledge of Japanese correctly pronounce the first vowel of ‘Nissan’ (日産 ー にっさん which derives from にち＋さん or nichi + san), they are unlikely to pronounce it correctly, since it has, properly pronounced, four syllables or morae: ni+ss+sa+ n (roughly), each taking, roughly, the same time to speak…
We “mispronounce” Nissan because their own marketing department is doing the mispronouncing, so that’s on them. At least we know it’s not Datsun*. Same goes for Honda or so I’ve heard. My last name is pronounced “keebler” because that’s what my father was told by his father etc.
* My favorite beater car was a B-210, inherited from my sister, who re-inherited it from Jesus, who relieved my sister of its use for some months. He was nice enough to duct tape a small crucifix in the dash which stayed there til the end. I don’t remember what finally killed it but it refused to die for a long time. Best mileage I’ve ever experienced (42 highway in the 90s, woot!) and I used it to pull my friend’s shiny new car out of the mud once.
Re: Japanese pronunciation
The small tsu (つ⇒っ) in にっさん, as in other words where it appears (e.g., てっけん、おっぱい、いったい) is not so much pronounced on its own as it is a hitch. So tekken is pronounced tek ken. And while the Japanese count each hiragana/katakana symbol as an individual syllable, that’s hardly ever how things are actually pronounced.
I’m usually happy if people can manage to get the vowels right. Like, for the love of Pete, please say せいゆう (seiyuu) as “say you”, not “sigh you”.
Getting the rising/falling intonation, even stress, vowel length, chisai tsu, or unvoiced vowels right is great, but really just icing on the cake. Speakers of Western languages have a really hard time with the even stress, so I’ve resigned myself to hearing “Naruto” said as “nah ROO toe”.
I mean, I tried to teach my dad to say こんにちは (konnichiwa), すみません (sumimasen), and 失礼します (shitsureishimasu) one afternoon. That went about as well as trying to teach him здравствуйте or на здоровье.
Also, because it’s funny and relevant, here’s the Key & Peele substitute teacher sketch.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a sin to mispronounce a name you’ve only seen written before. Ka-MAH-la conforms to other conventions of pronunciation of African-American names (such as Ta-MEE-ka, not TAM-i–ka [Tamika], or La-KEE-sha [Laquisha]). It’s not a horrible mistake in the first instance, at least until it’s pointed out that it is stressed like “Pamela.” i.e., KAHM-a-la.