Sven Faux Pas?

There's one reason in particular this site isn't called "We Like Sven Sundgaard": we firmly believe that Sven should never be given a mike, with an audience or interviewee, and be left to ad lib as he sees fit. He is TERRIBLE at this. The state fair interviews were an exercise in inanity. He's just not good at it. Read the planned out weather report? He can handle it. Speaking extemporaneously? Not a high point.

Sven hit his nadir on Friday evening, when he was interviewing a black marine talking about Toys for Tots (the color will come up in a moment).

The marine talked a bit, then said, "We really need toys right now for 10 year olds, boys and girls." Sven's response: "Excellent!"

Now, why it is excellent that more toys are needed for 10 year old boys and girls is beyond me. But that was not the faux pas.

After the marine was done talking, Sven said, "I think you're one of the better spoken ones we've had on here."

I shuddered and stared in awe.

I don't think Sven knows that there's in implicit insult in telling a black person, "You're so well-spoken," with its implicit tone of suprise ("You're so much better spoken than the rest of them"). To explicitly note that a black man is "well-spoken" can be indicative of surprise, as if one expects the black man not to be well-spoken.

Well, let's give Sven the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know that, didn't intend that, and would have said the same thing if the marine were white. After all, TV personalities do encounter a lot of shy rubes that don't really know how to talk coherently on camera. Let's assume that when he says this person is more well-spoken than most of the others, he's not referring to a black man, and not referring to a marine, but more generally to any of average rubes that Kare 11 personalities have been forced to talk to on camera.