One of my go-to rants back when Ed and I hosted a radio show together was commenting on the affectation of National Public Radio hosts, who had largely come up through the public radio system during the days of reporting on the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the 1980s, who would be reading their scripts in their measured, somnolent, utterly Anglo NPR accents...
...until they got to a Latino word. Any Latino word.
Suddenly, they'd wrap their mouths around words like "Tay-goo-chi-GOLL-pah, Hoan-DOO-rrrrras" (Tecucigalpa, Honduras) or "Tsyu-DODD Wha-REZZ, MAY-hee-co", like they were introducing the luchadors for a night of wrestling at the Cantina. It'd appear almost like warning, and stand out amid the general lugubriety of NPR fare, like low-rider in an Episcopal funeral procession, before disappearing into the ether, until the next time "San SAL-ba-DOHR" or "TSYU-dodd Wha-REZZ" or "Ell POSS-oh" wound up in the news.
It was purely a Spanish thing, of course. At the height of the Cold War, you might hear an NPR reporter doing a byline from Prague, or Warsaw or Budapest - proncounced "PROG", "WAR-saw" and "BOO-duh-pest", never "PRA-ha" or "Var-SHA-va" or "boo-da-PESHT-ee". When the Berlin Wall fell (the last counter-migration wall that NPR ever didn't protest against), not a single reporter signed off from "Bair-LEEN', DOYTCH-land".
And Ed and I were not the only ones to notice:
It's SNL (from back when it was still funny), but it's not especailly exaggerated. For Spanish words, and Spanish words only, they leaned in like it was going to come up on their final - or their performance review.
In retrospect, those seem like the good ol' days. Because comical as it was, it's only gotten worse:
Newsmax host Rob Finnerty asks why anchors pronounce Spanish-sounding names with an accent, starts talking in an Irish accent to prove how ridiculous it is.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 28, 2025
"As I've said before, I am Irish. And if I was moderating that debate, would the host introduce me as Robert James… pic.twitter.com/aij9dHZfXV
Of course, for pols within spitting distance of being Latin-American, it's the ultimate "code switch":\
Latinoooosssss.pic.twitter.com/9Ed7xgxyp8
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 28, 2025
"Eye-talians...Jooz...Black Americans...and "Leh-TEE-noze!"
Still, AOC puts it on better - if even more shrilly - than Kamala Harris:
#Jaina #Harris #Ese #Mexican #Spanish #Latina #kamala #lol #trump #maga #deplorable #infidel #NEW #accent #hilarious @DNC #conservative pic.twitter.com/6e2yOGGIgZ
— X Victims Arent We All X (@dravenny77) October 9, 2024
It's a fairly short leap from an NPR host affecting a pronunciation with the same effect as taping on a "Se, Se Habla Español" sign to the front door and flipping through accents like going through an old costume closet to try to LARP ethnicity:
3 minutes and 33 seconds of Kamala using different accents for different crowds
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 15, 2024
pic.twitter.com/3DB8ONfSBW
And whatever you can say about pasting on an accent like, dare I say, a Halloween costume to cosplay at what used to be called cosmpolitianism but has become more performative virtue-signaling, it may be a better look that swapping out entire backgrounds at will:
BREAKING - Conservatives are ruthlessly mocking Gavin Newsom after he debuted a new accent and a fabricated backstory, claiming he was so poor while growing up that he had to eat bread and mac and cheese just to pay the bills.
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) October 26, 2025
(His parents were millionaire socialites.) pic.twitter.com/eeWWIgvLH1
Pasting on a veneer of unearned "authenticity" has become a bit of a tradition on the left.
So what's next?
So, I don't know about you, but has anyone else noticed how NPR reporters are now trying to LARP Middle Eastern accents lately? It may have started with Barack Obama affecting a little lilt in "Pock-ee-STON", but I could swear I hear NPR taking runs at "Tay-he-RRRON", and "ee-ston-BOOL" along with the old favorite, "GAAA-tter" (aka "Qatar") lately.
We have just got to find a way to make the Czech Republic or Poland radical-hip.
