This article revisited (el 8 de junio de 2014). Hola. I received this e-mail this past week:
“I read your piece on Jorge Ramos y María Elena Salinas (Noticiero Univisión) and completely agreed with you. I find your opinions interesting. Any plans to write more about Univisión?”—Eduardo
My response: Hola, Eduardo. Gracias for your e-mail. It may surprise you and others to know that despite what I wrote in the article below, I don’t watch Univisión anymore. I “monitor” their programming from time-to-time just to see what’s on and what they’re doing but I’m very turned off by the network now. It’s become so corporate and so annoying. And from reading articles about what they’re doing, I won’t be surprised if Univisión is a US-English language network in less than 5-10 years, having abandoned español. That’s the direction they seem to be going. When they joined with ABC, I was disgusted that they were doing that. Still am. Very bad idea because I know from experience that the US-English language networks are basura/garbage. They focus on the lowest common denominator, stupidity, ignorance and their “news coverage” (if it can be called that) is pathetic. From what I can tell from monitoring Noticiero Univisión, their news coverage is not what it was when I wrote this article below (influenced by ABC News?), and their international coverage especially seems to be lacking from what it was. Every time I read an article about Univisión doing another deal with some other company, the language is US-English, it’s not español. I also stopped watching Uni because of all of the stupidphone commercials that they were shoving in viewers’ faces trying to get more and more of their audience addicted to those gadgets and that Orwellian “social media network” nonsense (i.e. “text us”). Their commercials are so hyped, flashy, loud and annoying. They remind me of the US-English language network commercials. That’s one reason I stopped watching those obnoxious networks. The US-English corporate media networks have been dying for years, so why is Uni trying to emulate/copy them and be like them? Why try to model yourself after networks that are dying? Does that make any sense to anybody? Loco. I stopped watching Uni because it had become a very loud and obnoxious network with lots of immature, silly programming and it looks like it’s gotten worse from when I occasionally monitor it. I usually have the television on Telemundo’s telenovela network these days. That’s much quieter and with less obnoxious ads. I also tired of the “celebrity culture” on Uni where many people with the network before their cameras seem to think they’re some sort of celebrity—I suppose they are among Latinos/Hispanos, but they don’t have to act like they are—with their blindingly white teeth and dyed hair. The network is also ageist and anti-ethnic and only wants mostly “young-looking” white Latinos before their expensive cameras (Tony D. being one exception to that). Chau.—rosa barrio

El 28 de marzo de 2013. Hola. The corporate media en los Estados Unidos/U.S. are pathetic as many people know. Because of that, the inglés/English language corporate networks have been losing viewers for some time and the español language networks have been gaining viewers. Two recent example:

Telenovelas make Univisión #1 on Tuesday evening

Noticiero Univisión Wraps Up Strong November

Spanish language TV news show tops Bay Area market

On occasion, some talking head on the corporate inglés/English language networks will interview someone from the #1 español language network in los Estados Unidos: Univisión. Two people who are often interviewed are Jorge Ramos and María Elena Salinas of Noticiero Univisión. When they introduce Jorge and/or María Elena, the talking head conducting the interview pronounces their names fairly close to being correct en español. However, then comes the name of their network, Univisión. The English language network talking heads proceed to completely fuck-up the name of the español language network both Jorge and Maria Elena work for. Why is it so difficult to pronounce Univisión correctly?

I suspect it’s because of the interviewer’s willful-ignorance of español. The word Univisión is an español word (just like the network names Telemundo, Azteca or Televisa, as three examples). None of those words are English language words. Is it really too much to ask that the talking heads of the English language corporate television and radio networks interviewing Jorge Ramos learn to properly pronounce just one español word, Univisión, before the interview? Would that be too much for them to handle? Well apparently it is, because I’ve heard no one pronounce Univisión correctly on the corporate media English language networks. No one! When I hear Univisión mispronounced I click off because I think: If these major broadcasters of the English language corporate media have that wrong, what else is going to be wrong with the broadcast content since they don’t seem to have much attention to detail or concern about accuracy or respect for other languages. So I just click off. It also tells me that their staff who run these programs at the corporate networks don’t do their research very well. Isn’t there anyone on their staff who speaks español? They would know the correct pronunciation of the word Univisión.

The problem with pronouncing Univisión incorrectly is that the more Univisión is pronounced incorrectly the more the public hears it incorrectly and learns it incorrectly if they don’t speak español…just like any other word that is often mispronounced and learned incorrectly. It becomes cemented in people’s speech wrong. Not good. What does that accomplish?

Would the other corporate media English language television and radio networks like to have their network name mispronounced on a regular basis so that the public also learns their name wrong and mispronounces it? I suspect they would have a major problem with that. Well then, why is it fine to mispronounce Univisión?

Anyone who speaks español knows that Univisión is pronounced like this (I’m writing it phonetically):

Oooo (as in the word “moon”) knee vee zee awn
(with the accent on the last syllable ón).

Some people say it faster or slower than others so it can sound like this:

Oooo knee vee sheon

But consistently on the pathetic, dumbed-down, lowest-common-denominator English language networks they pronounce this español word incorrectly this way. They say either:

You knee vision

or

You na vision

The latter is how one of the English language talking heads said it (incorrectly) in an interview with Jorge Ramos. There’s an “i” in there (Univisión) and “i” is not a “nah” sound in any language that I’m aware of.

Both ways of saying Univisión are incorrect, because (again) the word is not a word from or in the English language. From my experience, the “English only” crowd and people who only speak English want to make damned sure (they are often adamantly rabid about it) that everyone speaks English correctly. They are the first to scream, “Learn English.” Meanwhile, they are some of the ones who slur through it and have incorrect English grammar.

What these ignorant talking heads are trying to do is inappropriately put an español word into English (make it English). Why? Why would you do that? (I guess because they can’t say it in español). Why disrespect español? They’re talking about an español language network, but then proceed to pronounce the name of the network as if it were English! ¿Qué?/What? Would they do the same thing with the español word “gracias” for example? Would they pronounce that (written phonetically):

Gray sigh ass?

Ugh. [eyes rolled upward]. I’m writing about this because I’ve heard this mistake so many times and I’m tired of it. I find this very disrespectful to español, which is the second most popular world language among native speakers, with Mandarin being the world’s most popular language among native speakers. English comes in third.

Of the people on the English language networks that I’m thinking of who have misprounced Univisión, I suspect they only speak one language (English). I would point out that Jorge Ramos and María Elena Salinas from Univisión are fluently bilingual. Many of the on-air people at Univisión are bilingual because I’ve heard them go back and forth on occasion between español, English and back to español fluently. They (Jorge and María Elena, for example) hear the name of their network mispronounced repeatedly but unfortunately they say nothing about the mistake. I think they should correct the mistake. I think they should take a role in helping to educate the public in learning a little bit of español (at least one word). Don’t just sit there and let your network name be botched, fucked-up, mispronounced by some willfully-ignorant host and then repeat it mispronounced. What does that accomplish? That accomplishes nothing but continuing to cement the mistake and the ignorance. Jorge Ramos and María Elena Salinas should follow up in their next couple of sentences in their interview and say their network name correctly as it’s said on their network (maybe say it slowly) so that viewers/listeners and the ignorant interviewer talking head can hear the correct pronunciation of the network name, rather than cementing in the mistake. Maybe the talking heads at the English language corporate media networks will learn it too. Ya think?

I also guess that these English language networks don’t think to turn on their local Univisión affiliate station to hear the network’s name pronounced properly. How difficult is that? The network name Univisión is said throughout the day and evening before and after all programs and during the Noticiero Univisión. Every reporter says it at the end of their report on Noticiero Univisión.

One thing I did notice is that the English language networks are able to pronounce Jorge Ramos (more or less). That’s an español name. They don’t say when they introduce him (phonetically written), jor gay ray mos. They say (phonetically written): hor-hey rah-mos. So they can at least do that one, but they can’t say Univisión. That’s appears to be way beyond them.

Thinking about this I remember a television chef (a cooking program) and she’s originally from Italia/Italy. Her program is in English but the moment she gets to a word in italiano/Italian such as Rigatoni or Tortellini (or if she chooses to use brief italiano on her show) she instantly switches to authentic italiano and then immediately switches back to inglés. She too is bilingual. That’s the sign of a cultivated, thoughtful, respectful (of other languages and cultures), educated host which is not something that one generally gets from the dumbed-down corporatist English language networks.

To me, it’s most disrespectful to other world languages and cultures how the English language networks feel the need to change words from other languages into inglés. It’s also extremely arrogant, but unfortunately it is so typical of los Estados Unidos/U.S. and its extremely myopic world view mentality.

The other day I heard a reporter from Noticiero Univisión mention one of the English language television networks in her report. She pronounced that English network name the way it’s pronounced in English and the way that it’s pronounced on that network, and then she immediately returned to español. Very skilled, talented, and respectful of English in this case. Why can’t the English language networks have the same respect for español? Why can’t they have the same skill level, talent and education to do the same thing for español and return the favour when it comes to Univisión? Are they really that insipid at these English language corporate media networks?

One wonders what would they do if Jorge Ramos or María Elena Salinas went on one of the English language television networks and said the name of the English language network the way it’s spoken en español? What if Jorge and María Elena Salinas were to do that? For those who don’t know, the alphabet pronunciation en español is not the same as the English pronunciation.

I suspect someone would immediately scream:
LEARN ENGLISH!

In the case of Univisión, someone needs to scream:
LEARN ESPAÑOL….at least ONE word. Is that too much to ask? Chau.—rosa barrio

From Dean Johnson Fine Art designs: