Wednesday, August 30, 2006
"Mr." -- Not President -- Bush
Okay, maybe I'm nit-picking but when I was younger it seemed that the current president, as well as past living presidents, were referred to as, "President _____."
I can't claim to have conducted a scientific analysis of the issue, but it seems to me that, "Mr. Bush" has become a rather common title for our current President from some media sources (this linked -- and very biased -- Washington Times article is actually by Ian James of Associated Press. As an aside, I should note that characters like Hugo Chavez -- a subject in the linked article -- are often described as, "left-leaning," though that's not the case in this particular article. While some Republicans are often referred to as "extreme" or "far right" wing, the major news agencies haven't yet figured out that Chavez is a full-blown communist like his idol, Fidel Castro. Maybe he's just, communist "leaning").
Back to my original point regarding skewed titles for our current president, I think it would be quite typical of contemporary journalists in "main-stream" media land to deliberately seek to diminish the stature and authority of the current commander and chief with some linguistic acrobatics. I could be wrong, but I really don't remember references to "Mr. Carter" when he was the acting President. I often see references to, "Mr. Bush."
A Google search for "Mr. Bush" -- the current President -- finds 9,460,000 entries. A search for "Mr. (former president) Clinton" finds only 975,000 entries with the title "Mr." and millions (twice as many as Bush) with the title "president."
What's up with that?
'Media clowns just doing what they do best; lying, distorting, and concocting news to promote the view of the pampered spoiled brat brigade.
...I dare say; so typical.
(p.s. I realize that living former presidents are properly referred to by their executive title or at least "former president _____.")
