Wall Street Journal draws backlash over op-ed urging Jill Biden to drop 'doctor' title

[Steeleballz 7,550]

10 minutes ago, laylalex said:

Al's undergrad degree was a BSc. Perhaps we can use that instead.

 

   I know other countries use BSc. I think it's a Commonwealth thing. Maybe it's a nice TOS friendly VJ alternative for the offensive degree abbreviation. 

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

2 hours ago, laylalex said:

Al's undergrad degree was a BSc. Perhaps we can use that instead.

Is that BS cubed?

[laylalex 7,284]

36 minutes ago, CanAm1980 said:

Is that BS cubed?

Sometimes I feel that it must be. What's worse is he has an MSc as well, compounding the problem. 

[TBoneTX 45,267]

BS = bologna sandwich

[Dashinka 24,489]

Man Chokes In Restaurant, Dr. Jill Biden Springs Into Action To Deliver Educational Lecture

 

 

WILMINGTON, DE—As Dr. Jill Biden and her husband went out to eat over the weekend, a man began choking on his Denver omelet. But lucky for him, Dr. Jill Biden was there, and she is a doctor.

"We need a doctor here!" cried a waiter. "Is there a doctor in the house?"

Dr. Jill Biden sprang into action. "I'm a doctor!" she said, rushing over. "I'm going to need a podium and a microphone, stat!" After a busboy hurried over with the life-saving tools she would need, Dr. Jill Biden thanked him and then began delivering a speech on meeting students' needs at the community college level.

 

https://babylonbee.com/news/man-chokes-in-restaurant-dr-jill-biden-springs-into-action-to-deliver-educational-lecture

[Dashinka 24,489]

'Dr.' Jill Biden? Critics of Op-Ed Often Omitted the Title
 

Last week an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by Joseph Epstein provoked a heated debate over the use of the honorific “Dr.” by future first lady Jill Biden when the writer suggested that only medical doctors should use the courtesy title, rather than anyone with a doctorate. The op-ed drew considerable backlash, with widespread support expressed across news outlets and among the punditry for her use of the prefix. Yet, a close examination of media coverage of Jill Biden over the course of this year suggests that for all their outrage, some of the very media outlets most critical of the op-ed have themselves consistently omitted her preferred title.

The debate over whether all doctorate holders should be referred to as “Dr.” isn’t new. In 2018 some news outlets, including NPR, declined to use the prefix in referring to Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford. In the words of NPR’s standards editor at the time, “the idea is that for most listeners a 'Dr.' practices medicine.”

Nor is the debate over “Dr. Biden” itself a new one. Her use of the title prompted a similar debate when she became the second lady in 2009, with journalists noting that her predecessor Lynne Cheney also held a doctorate but chose not to use the honorific. The Washington Post’s copy desk chief was quoted at the time as saying, “My feeling is if you can’t heal the sick, we don’t call you doctor” – Epstein’s words almost verbatim. The Los Angeles Times clarified to its readers that “newspapers, including The Times, generally do not use the honorific ‘Dr.’ unless the person in question has a medical degree”; as such, the Times declined to address Biden this way.  
 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/12/16/dr_jill_biden_critics_of_op-ed_often_omitted_the_title_144857.html

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

1 hour ago, Dashinka said:

'Dr.' Jill Biden? Critics of Op-Ed Often Omitted the Title
 

Last week an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by Joseph Epstein provoked a heated debate over the use of the honorific “Dr.” by future first lady Jill Biden when the writer suggested that only medical doctors should use the courtesy title, rather than anyone with a doctorate. The op-ed drew considerable backlash, with widespread support expressed across news outlets and among the punditry for her use of the prefix. Yet, a close examination of media coverage of Jill Biden over the course of this year suggests that for all their outrage, some of the very media outlets most critical of the op-ed have themselves consistently omitted her preferred title.

The debate over whether all doctorate holders should be referred to as “Dr.” isn’t new. In 2018 some news outlets, including NPR, declined to use the prefix in referring to Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford. In the words of NPR’s standards editor at the time, “the idea is that for most listeners a 'Dr.' practices medicine.”

Nor is the debate over “Dr. Biden” itself a new one. Her use of the title prompted a similar debate when she became the second lady in 2009, with journalists noting that her predecessor Lynne Cheney also held a doctorate but chose not to use the honorific. The Washington Post’s copy desk chief was quoted at the time as saying, “My feeling is if you can’t heal the sick, we don’t call you doctor” – Epstein’s words almost verbatim. The Los Angeles Times clarified to its readers that “newspapers, including The Times, generally do not use the honorific ‘Dr.’ unless the person in question has a medical degree”; as such, the Times declined to address Biden this way.  
 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/12/16/dr_jill_biden_critics_of_op-ed_often_omitted_the_title_144857.html

The entire way this thing is orchestrated is to pit people into camps completely absent of reason. These sort of petty nothings help solidify that kind of irrationality. I wasn't aware this was an actual issue (few people call everyone by academic titles except in very few formal circumstances), it likely wasn't, and the WSJ basically created an issue out of thin air. They knew what they were doing. The natural response from the left and outrage culture was to kick up more dust about it. So now you have your camps, people who oppose outrage culture, those who are offended by what they think are attacks on a woman (and the free points one can score by beating the outrage piñata).

 

This is how brand marketing works in politics and how they get people to focus their attention on invented controversies, pit them in segmented camps, and avoid the larger underlying issues that are of actual consequence which might hold the right people accountable. And just like how the incompetence of elected officials points to the voter (who likes to stupidly award responsibility of said voter fulfilling their own oversight to the very lawmakers they say are corrupt), issues like this likewise point to people who oblige. They don't waste their time on this stuff if people don't take the bait, but it works, over and over again. So people are stuck with precisely what they deserve if they want to make the choice to be emotional children led on a leash by wherever some purveyor of information wants to lead them.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Burnt Reynolds

[laylalex 7,284]

I think Dr. Sebastian Gorka would have some strong words if all of a sudden he had to become Mr. Gorka, and he is definitely not on the left. 

 

If you spend any time with academics, they will let you know very, very quickly when you accidentally refer to them as Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. I learned this first from my high school boyfriend's father, who was a retired professor of Classics, who occasionally taught at community college in his retirement. The first time I addressed him as Mr. Brookes it was like you could hear a pin drop. "That's Doctor Brookes, thank you."  

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

1 hour ago, laylalex said:

I think Dr. Sebastian Gorka would have some strong words if all of a sudden he had to become Mr. Gorka, and he is definitely not on the left. 

 

If you spend any time with academics, they will let you know very, very quickly when you accidentally refer to them as Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. I learned this first from my high school boyfriend's father, who was a retired professor of Classics, who occasionally taught at community college in his retirement. The first time I addressed him as Mr. Brookes it was like you could hear a pin drop. "That's Doctor Brookes, thank you."  

I'm sure Mr. Gorka then would be happy we've never met, because he's no doctor of mine.

 

I've spent loads of time with academics, part and parcel of multiple degrees, training, club/org memberships, and making use of the people you meet. Funny enough, despite seeing every abbreviation possible in formal communications like emails and such, not a single one of my professors with a doctorate I've ever had to refer to (and I'm glad because I have a knack for doing the opposite of what people that aren't my boss order me to do) as "Dr." unless it was in some very formal setting and I was wanting something from them, in writing, like a reference. Nearly all the time I refer to them by their first name, sometimes Mr or Mrs or Professor if they don't like the way people pronounce their first name (or like the way they hear it).

[Dashinka 24,489]

3 hours ago, laylalex said:

I think Dr. Sebastian Gorka would have some strong words if all of a sudden he had to become Mr. Gorka, and he is definitely not on the left. 

 

If you spend any time with academics, they will let you know very, very quickly when you accidentally refer to them as Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. I learned this first from my high school boyfriend's father, who was a retired professor of Classics, who occasionally taught at community college in his retirement. The first time I addressed him as Mr. Brookes it was like you could hear a pin drop. "That's Doctor Brookes, thank you."  

There was a time when getting a PhD really meant something.  I do find some folks with PhDs that demand the Dr. honorific, I usually find those kind of people a little too much into themselves, but whatever.

 

I do have a question though, does your father or any other lawyer you know demand that they be addressed as Dr. Whatever?

[laylalex 7,284]

Lawyers don't get called doctors. A JD is a professional degree that is called "juris doctor" but it isn't a doctorate. So no lawyer should call themselves a doctor unless they have a doctorate, and plenty do (Ph.D., MD, EdD, DJS (very rare)). 

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

[Dashinka 24,489]

8 hours ago, laylalex said:

Lawyers don't get called doctors. A JD is a professional degree that is called "juris doctor" but it isn't a doctorate. So no lawyer should call themselves a doctor unless they have a doctorate, and plenty do (Ph.D., MD, EdD, DJS (very rare)). 

Aren't they all professional degrees?  Heck, MD/DO/DDS/DVM are certainly professional degrees, not sure how those are different than a JD as I don't think the medical/dental/veterinary grads have to do a dissertation.  PhDs and EdDs are the ones more geared toward academia.  Personally I don't really care, I call the medical related folks Dr., and the other folks by their name unless they are so arrogant to demand being addressed as Dr.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Dashinka

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

7 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

Aren't they all professional degrees?  Heck, MD/DO/DDS/DVM are certainly a professional degrees, not sure how those are different than a JD as I don't think the medical/dental, veterinary grads have to do a dissertation.  PhDs and EdDs are the ones more geared toward academia.  Personally I don't really care, I call the medical related folks Dr., and the other folks by their name unless they are so arrogant to demand being addressed as Dr.

Spot on. 

 

Ready for some SNL on Thursday? 

 

"Doctor" 

 

Read the thread and other responses from people who wasted time going through her dissertation to make us laugh.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Burnt Reynolds

[Dashinka 24,489]

3 minutes ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

Spot on. 

 

Ready for some SNL on Thursday? 

 

 

Read the thread and other responses from people who wasted time going through her dissertation to make us laugh. 

To be fair, Jill Biden is an EdD., not really sure she passed mathematics.