But do they make the same effort as many American newscasters do to over-pronounce, hypercorrect or exoticize the names? I still hear “She-kah-ger” on BBC World Service and “Noo-ey-VAH HORK” on Mexican (not US-based Spanish language) broadcasts.
It was Don Juan (excuse me, Don Joo-un) who ended up in Hell, and down there they’re probably still arguing over the pronunciation of his name.
Spanish-speaking ones do try; Ricky Martin is pronounced Ríki Martin, not Ríki Martín; Hillary Clinton is Jílary Clínton, not Hilária Clínton or Ílari Clínton.
Success is easier when the name is one we can hear from natives easily, of course: I’m reasonably sure we’re apt to mangle the name of most Indian politicians beyond any likely recognition.
The names which produce worst results, to my ears at least, are those of people or places where the spelling has been changed from one based on Spanish or Portuguese transliteration (that is, from one which we understand instinctively) into one based on English (in the words of Jackie Chan: “I hate English! How do you say this?”). I’ve mentioned before the case of Ceilán, which to my ears and as pronounced by the Indians I’ve met (never met someone from Sri Lanka yet) sounds halfway between Sailán and Seilón - ever since Sri Lanka became the only acceptable spelling, Spanish newscasters pronounce the country’s name as Ésree Lánka :smack: or, worse yet, Es Ree Lanka.
I don’t want to name names, but the phonics of Spanish words and pronunciations I see in this thread are full of the wrong stresses and the wrong vowels: seriously guys, wash those ears!
I have known Japanese who absolutely mangle Italian and Spanish words by hypercorrecting them with English pronounciation rules.
For example, Japanese has no final -t sound, so an English word like ‘lent’ becomes ‘lento’ in accented Japanese.
So I knew this English teacher of Japanese extraction who, upon first encountering the Italian-derived musical direction “molto lento”, took great pains not to make the Japanese rube mistake of tacking ‘-to’ on the end. He proudly pronounced it “molt lent”.
Or “how to turn Italian into Catalan when you’re Japanese” 
I speak some Japanese so I understand exactly what they’re doing, I probably didn’t give that impression from what I typed though.
Actually, for some reason, I tend to say Don Quijote, and it also applies to famous authors (but not to other notable figures, like politicians, etc…) despite not speaking a good Spanish.
Regarding the OP, it does happen in the news. Sometimes I think because the journalist knows the local language and is accustomed to it, but generally for no particularly obvious reason. I can’t find an example, but I’ve noticed in the past that when a big event happens in some place not usually mentionned, the usual French name of said place is often replaced by the exotic-sounding local name (probably butchered, even though I wouldn’t know) that sometimes sticks. I remember realizing once only after a long time that a previously unknown town frequently reported about actually was the same I knew under its French name.
For contemporary people’s first names, the local name is normally used. For instance, the current king of Spain is Juan Carlos not Jean Charles (with the “J” pronounced more or less the spanish way). It generally doesn’t apply to historical figures : the guy who reigned on the empire where the sun never set was neither Karl V nor Carlos I but Charles Quint. The protector of arts was Laurent de Medicis, not Lorenzo.
Cairo, Illinois is pronounced “Kay-row” for some reason.
I find the allegations of “hypercorrectness” a little odd. Those foreign correspondents in Nicaragua were presumably speaking Spanish with the people they were interviewing. You want them to stop and invent an ignorant English pronunciation for some official or group whose name they have primarily heard pronounced by native speakers? Same with the token Latina on a Texas TV channel. She was taught her name by her mother, who was most likely a native speaker. Is it now her responsibility to listen in on lunchroom conversations to learn how lazy Anglos pronounce it?
One thing’s for sure, they don’t affect the local accent when they talk about the daily happenings in my adopted home-town of Brooklyn, NY.
The TV networks won’t even hire a woman to do normal office work if she lets the Brooklyn accent slip out in the interview. They’ll think she sounds “uneducated”.
Ironically the reporters think themselves highly intelligent to affect the accent of countries where the women are literally uneducated.
I’ve seen this baseless accusation on the SDMB before - probably from you.
OK, to clarify, it’s not baseless, as we do indeed do this quite a lot, but labelling it as a “British practice” ignores that every nationality does it. For example, I’ve lived in the States enough to know that, off the top of my head, you guys have fought in Eye-raq against Sodom Hussein, and fought at Eye-wo Jima, and don’t like Eye-ran or Freeance, or watch tennis played at Wimpleton, and sometimes like to put Worchester sauce on your food. It’s not just us. We massacre Spanish pronunciations, you massacre French ones, and we all massacre Asian ones.
That said, the Spanish and Italian practice of actually renaming e.g. Prince William raises a big 
from me. We definitely wouldn’t do that in the UK. We don’t talk about Sylvester Berlusconi, or Joe Green the composer.
Eye-raq and Eye-ran, yes.
Eye-wo Jimo, no.
Wimpleton, no.
Freeance? F them - I’ll call their country whatever I damn well please.
Huh? W/ diacritical marks only. Otherwise just a shibboleth.
With my own ears, I have heard “Eye-wo Jima” said by at least one US American while in US America.
Again, yes, by several people in US America.
That was my little joke.
Where did you live in the states? Iran and Iraq are the only ones that look like familiar mispronunciations to me. Everyone here knows it’s wustahsheer sauce…You know, like Wustah, Massachusetts.
Texas, Tennessee and Connecticut. The Worcestershire sauce one happened in Texas. It’s not fair, really, because it’s a stupid spelling, but is to illustrate that BigT’s assertion is nonsensical as it’s universal.
Eye-ranians, Eye-raqis and Eye-talians. The axis of eye-vil.
That was said by Dubya and not BARRuck Obama (as we say over here).
I don’t think anyone is complaining against proper pronunciation, or supporting redneck pronunciations (“eye-tahl-YUN” and the like). It’s exaggerated pronunciation and accent shifting by native English speakers of Anglo descent.
Take, for example, Costa Rica.
American redneck pronunciation: KOST-ay REE-kay
American regular pronunciation: Ko-stuh REE-kuh
American sensitive pronunciation: Ko-STAH rrrrrre-KAH
What’s lazy about the middle pronunciation?
Wen I lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the locals, both Anglo and of Mexican descent, generally pronounced the city’s name as “Lahs KROO-sis”. A certain crowd, though, said “Lahs KROO-says” and even “Lahs Kah-rrrro-says” - a few announcers on the public radio stations in town and EEIL paah-so, and the folks you’d see at the natural foods co-op or a gallery opening.
The “logic” of this hypercorrection would seem to run something like this:
French is a foreign language, and it pronounces j as zh.
Chinese is a foreign language too.
Ergo, Chinese pronounces j as zh.
Spot the fallacy for extra credit.
No silent letters? Only one pronunciation for each letter? :dubious:
How do you pronounce the letter ה in עלייה?
Is the letter ב is pronounced the same in בת and אברהם?
Likewise כ in כשר and הלכה, or פ in פסח and שׂרף?