News Anchors Reporting Plane Crash Can't Say "Ouagadougou"
Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso. It's also the origin of Air Algerie flight 5017, which crashed last week in Mali killing 118. With the disaster coming so soon after the MH17 tragedy, coverage of the crash in West Africa deserved high placement in local newscasts across the U.S.—and, in turn, the proper pronunciation of "Ouagadougou," which is the surprisingly simple 'wah-gah-DOO-goo.'
We scanned through local newscasts and found that an equal number skipped naming Burkina Faso's capital entirely—even when it was written in their scripts—than mispronounced it. (The totals: 20 local news stations pronounced it correctly, nine incorrectly, and nine anchors scrambled to find another word—one especially awkward example of which you can find above. The rest all left AH5017's flight origin out entirely.)
Otherwise, watch all the anchors' varying mispronunciation of what is, again, a world capital.


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