August 18, 2004
Senator Kerry vs. Mr. Bush
I know the fashionable thing for journalists these days is to refer to the President of the United States as "Mister," but I think equitable treatment is in order, don't you? I noticed this morning while listening to NPR that a reporter referred to "Mr. Bush," but in the same story he referred to John Kerry as "Senator Kerry."
So I did a search on the Google news site for articles containing the terms "Mr. Bush" and "Senator Kerry." A number of the resulting articles have a "Mr. Bush"/"Senator Kerry" contrast because, while the writer refers to "Mr. Bush," he quotes President Bush talking about Kerry, and it's Bush who refers to "Senator Kerry."
Once you weed those out, you're left with a couple of NPR pieces that have the "Mr. Bush"/"Senator Kerry" contrast, a sprinkling of small-time papers that do the same, several opinion pieces that do this, and a whole slew of Australian news sites.
Apparently, the media down under are rooting for Senator Kerry. To consider just a sample, you might look at this site which has an article stating:
"Support for Senator Kerry rose from 46 per cent in an April poll, while it has declined from 44 per cent for Mr Bush in April."
Another Aussie newspaper writes:
"Senator Kerry said Mr Bush was trying to create "a culture war" about homosexual rights to avoid talking about jobs and health care."
Even the Australian version of ABC News is in on this game. Consider:
"Making a frontal assault on Mr Bush's contention he was running as a "war president," Senator Kerry said: "In these dangerous days there is a right way and a wrong way to be strong."
Another story on the ABC site reads:
"Senator Kerry insisted the United States must stay the course but suggested he would make a greater effort than Mr Bush to win international financial and military backing."
Regardless of your political views, that's very low-class, mates.
Posted by Woodlief on August 18, 2004 at 08:52 AM
I listen to the BBC on the radio sometimes, and I dont think I would be inaccurate if I chose to rename the BBC "al-Zazeera West"!!! The reporting is so self-righteously anti-American, that left-leaning, that it is , as Tony says, low-class, and a disgrace to the BBc's reputation over the years.
Posted by: sid at August 18, 2004 7:47 PM
I noticed the same thing. For once we agree...
Most of the time it seems that all the pieces that appear on NPR that refer to "Mr. Bush" come from the BBC, so you have to consider the source. Even the nations that helped us militarily in Iraq seem miffed at our President. Bleeding heart liberal that I am even I'm a little annoyed by that little detail.
As far as the Aussies, well they do have troops in Iraq, even though their citizens seem pretty pissed off about the whole thing. What can I say?
Posted by: Palmer Haas at August 19, 2004 3:38 AM
really enjoying sand in the gears... for many reasons. Thanks,
Posted by: not perfection at August 21, 2004 4:47 PM
If the orgin of this is British, then it MAY NOT be prejudice. I believe that the PM is either called "The Prime Minister" or "Mr. Blair". They also don't call Surgeons "Dr." for some reason.
Or I could be nuts
Posted by: Oscar at August 25, 2004 6:44 PM
I was always taught that since the United States does not have an aristocracy, we don't have titles other than "Mr.", "Mrs.", or "Miss/Ms." Therefore the correct way to refer to the president is either "Mr. Bush" or "Mr. President." And therefore one should not refer to Kerry as "Senator" Kerry. But -- we all know the real reason the newsmedia never refers to Mr. Bush as "President Bush" but can barely be restrained from calling Kerry "M'Lord."
Posted by: Andrea Harris at August 25, 2004 9:26 PM
I am posting this from Canberra, and let me tell you the leftist and anti-American bias in Australian media is very strong. The media has a lot of people in it who are trying to relive their salad days as 1960s anti-Vietnam war protesters.
Fortunately, it is a lot stronger in our biased media (think BBC levels here) than it is among the population in general. Americans are quite popular here.
SO by reading the Australian dead tree media, you will get a very skewed picture of us as a bunch of sports-crazed anti-Americans. Instead, we are actually a bunch of sports-crazed beer drinkers.
Check out the Australian blogosphere for some balance. The following sites are good ones:
http://timblair.spleenville.com/
http://bunyip.blogspot.com/
http://bastardsinc.blogs.com/
(COMMENT: Remember that the term 'bastard' is most often used here in Australia as a term of endearment between old friends, as in "How are you going, you old bastard?" There is an Association of Old Bastards here. It is a sort of club.
and a bunch of Australian bloggers (left and right) at
http://ozbloggers.blogspot.com/
For a totally demented barking moonbat blogger in Australia, see Crazy Joe at: http://joevialls.co.uk/
But be aware that he changes his host every couple of weeks to stay ahead of the vast CIA-Mossad international Zionist Conspiracy based in North Korea (!) that is out to get him. Yep, Joe is serious when he says this... sad. But very, very funny.
So yes, our media is hardwired in to the left, but the people are a fair bit smarter than them.
Cheers: MarkL
Canberra
Posted by: MarkL at August 26, 2004 3:13 AM
