‘Dr.’ Jill Biden, You Insist?

[mystery-ak]

‘Dr.’ Jill Biden, You Insist?

Critics of Joseph Epstein's op-ed often omitted the title from their coverage.

By Kalev Leetaru
December 28, 2020

A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal sparked a heated debate over the use of the title “Dr.” by future First Lady Jill Biden, suggesting that only medical doctors should be accorded this courtesy title. Despite raising the same issue a decade ago—when the Bidens were vice president and second lady—and openly ridiculing members of the Trump Administration for the same practice, the media largely embraced the notion of “Dr. Jill Biden.” Yet a closer look at their own practices shows a stark gap between rhetoric and reality.

CNN published several pieces condemning the Journal’s op-ed and arguing that not calling Biden “Dr.” amounted to sexism. Yet the graph below (using data from the Internet Archive’s Television News Archive) shows the total seconds of airtime since Jan. 1, 2020, in which BBC News, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News either spoke or displayed in the onscreen text “Dr. Biden” or “Dr. Jill Biden.” For all its outrage, CNN has consistently declined to address Biden by her chosen title. In fact, CNN displayed “Dr. Biden” onscreen for just 6 minutes this entire year, compared with 4.45 hours on Fox News.

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https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/28/dr-jill-biden-you-insist/

[mountaineer]

When I first arrived in the newsroom 20+ years ago, my managing editor explained that only doctors of medicine (M.D., D.O., D.V.M.) and dentistry were to be referred to as "Dr." in our news reporting.

 Ph.D. and Ed.D. holders were to be referred to the same way everyone else was: by last name only. While I may have called a few of my Ph.D.-holding college professors "Dr.," during my years in school, it remains that legitimate news reporters should not call someone like Jill Biden a doctor, especially when we're talking about an Ed.D.