Why do Americans tend to pronounce "ö" like "ä" in German names?
When I first read about the politician John Boehner in newspapers, I imagined the name sounding fairly much like I would expect "Böhner" to be pronounced by a German speaker, but, then, I was thrown for a loop by television newcasters calling him "Bähner". Admittedly the sound that "ö" makes doesn't fit that neatly into English, but I would expect "BOOner" or "BERner" long before "BAYner". Put simply, the sounds don't seem related to me.
Also, Matt Groening (creator of "The Simpsons" and the "Life in Hell" comics) indicates, in one of his books, that his last name is pronounced "Gray-ning" and pokes fun at a professor from Europe who calls him "Groo-nink".

Anyway, does anyone know what causes this appearent discrepency? Might it be variations in regional German dialects, perhaps? Are there any other strange patterns you notice in how Americans pronounce German words?

Question

Why do Americans tend to pronounce "ö" like "ä" in German names?
When I first read about the politician John Boehner in newspapers, I imagined the name sounding fairly much like I would expect "Böhner" to be pronounced by a German speaker, but, then, I was thrown for a loop by television newcasters calling him "Bähner".  Admittedly the sound that "ö" makes doesn't fit that neatly into English, but I would expect "BOOner" or "BERner" long before "BAYner".  Put simply, the sounds don't seem related to me. 
Also, Matt Groening (creator of "The Simpsons" and the "Life in Hell" comics) indicates, in one of his books, that his last name is pronounced "Gray-ning" and pokes fun at a professor from Europe who calls him "Groo-nink".

Anyway, does anyone know what causes this appearent discrepency? Might it be variations in regional German dialects, perhaps?  Are there any other strange patterns you notice in how Americans pronounce German words?

Answer

it's because americans are stupid lol

but, seriously, I think it's just because in the english language o's have different sounds than in german

like in english an o would normally sound like "ah" and e would be "eh" so together they'd make an "ay" sound

Answer

I wonder about it too. When I learned German, the most difficult ones to pronouce were ö and ü. Because I had to speak "o" first and quickly with "e" behind. For someone who never knows German are difficult to pronounce them.

Answer

It's a dialect. Some German dialects give us AE instead of OE.

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