A word in trouble.

Growing up in Boston during the 50s we were taught that you always pronounced "the" as thee when it preceded a vowel. Happily this was the rule and national standard, since it sounds much more euphonic.  But more and more it has fallen out of favor due, I imagine, to ignorance and laziness. Just now there was a report on the NBC evening news and the reporter spoke of thu accident and thu emergency crew and thu everything that began with a vowel. I think it's a shame that this ugly, flat thu sound is becoming so acceptable. I cannot accept, taking one of millions of examples that thu ocean will ever sound as beautiful as thee ocean does.