Why Doesn't NPR Sound More Like the Rest of America?

NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey A. Dvorkin discusses broadcast diction.

A small Britishism made its way into a May 11 news report on Morning Edition by NPR's Philip Reeves. It struck a linguistic nerve for listener Julia Knaus, among others:

In listening to Morning Edition this morning, in the 7 a.m. hour, I heard an NPR correspondent say the word "orientate." I was astonished to hear such a blatant error on the air.

To say "orientate" instead of "orient" is not a "blatant error." But it has been the preferred British pronunciation.

How about if an NPR announcer pronounced the name of our nation's capital "London"?

(via Romenesko)