DISSING THE PRESIDENT….I was sort of planning to take the day off from blogging, but then, via Eric Zorn’s Breaking Views, I ran across the latest concern of the nutball right and just thought I should share it:
Have you noticed the mainstream media has frequently referred to President George W. Bush as “Mr. Bush”? You can hear this language on nearly every television and radio news broadcast which mentions the President.
During Bill Clinton’s entire eight years of office, I cannot once remember the press referring to him as “Mr. Clinton.” The term “Mr. Bush” is an obvious display of disrespect for the man and the office.
More important, there may be something else at play here. Perhaps the media is questioning the validity of the Bush presidency. The left often claims Bush’s election was a fraud perpetrated on the American people. Could the term “Mr. Bush” indicate the press may also harbor these sentiments?….
Eric, an actual reporter with access to actual facts (but, sadly, not actual permalinks), decided to check this out:
I plugged “Mr. Clinton” and “president” into Nexis and got 266 hits in the Chicago Tribune alone from March, 1992 until Clinton left in office in January, 2001. “Mr Bush” and “president” got 91 hits since Jan 1, 2000. The slight edge goes to Clinton in the all-important Misters per Month (MPM) category.
I’m glad we got that straightened out. For the record, I have never referred to our commander in chief as Mr. Bush. I prefer Dubya.
And yes, it’s an obvious display of disrespect.
