Bringing The President Down A Notch: NPR Ends Calling Him 'Mr.'

[Newsjock]

Source: NPR

The newsroom has confirmed that the president puts on his pants like most of the rest of us: one leg at a time.

I make light. What it did today was change its stylebook and dropped referring on-air to the president of the United States as "Mr." in second references. Beginning with the inauguration of President Barack Obama for his second term next Monday, "Mr." Obama and his successors will be called by just their last names on second reference. "Obama," for example. Just like the rest of us.

Many listeners have complained over the years about the style. It was meant to show extra respect, but as I wrote in a column on Election Day, extra respect is a suspect practice in a democracy like ours.

Let me say, a smaller number of listeners have steadily made the opposite complaint: "Mr." is too informal and that the president should always be called "President so-and-so" in second references. The complaints seemed to come from supporters of the person in the White House at the time. They often saw an NPR conspiracy afoot against their guy.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2013/01/17/169645406/bringing-the-president-down-a-notch-npr-ends-calling-him-mr

[JaneyVee]

1. Pretty sure every President gets called "Mr.", it's informal but not traditionally insulting.

[sadbear]

2. Whatcha bet they'll change back for the next republican president?

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. I wondered why they hadn't dropped the honorific when * was president.

[sadbear]

6. I don't listen to NPR anymore, but I suspect that...

if they ever refer to *, they will refer to him as 'Former President *'.

[kiva]

9. Probably not.

NPR is not a news outlet I worry about - I know this is a hot button with some on DU, but I don't see any signs this is a slur against the president. Heck, there's an ongoing argument about people here referring to him without a title.

Anyway, style manuals for writing change with the times too so we'll probably be having another debate about that later.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Nope. They are adopting the AP style

Which 98% of the media uses in the US.

I call any pol by last name after first mention in a news story. The same goes for border patrol, sheriffs, cops, and anybody in the field.

[NYC Liberal]

4. This is the case with EVERY president. Many news outlets do this.

Calling the president "President X" on every single reference in an article would be cumbersome and silly imo.

[Robb]

5. Remember when there were pauses between sentences on the radio?

I bet this eliminates enough air time every day to squeeze in another sponsor message or two.

[MadHound]

7. And the dropped the "Mr." in front of George and simply called him Bush,

News outlets back in the day referred to Lyndon as LBJ, Tricky Dick as Nixon, so on and so forth.

This has always gone on, but I suppose the uber-supporters and easily offended will get their knickers in a twist over just about anything.

[CJCRANE]

8. We always talk about Bush, Blair, Reagan, Clinton etc.

here on DU so I can't really complain about this.

However, it will be interesting to see how they refer to foreign dignitaries, and other American politicians.

[SmileyRose]

10. I'm just glad they've avoided calling him "boy" on air.

as I suspect most of them do in private.

The public discourse on supposed news has gotten so disgusting that I've almost completely given up on wasting my beautiful mind on it.

[Fumesucker]

14. ^^^^^ This! n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. What? NPR is going AP on us?

That leaves the gray lady.

[global1]

13. Then Why Do They Call Former Presidents, Senators, Governors, Etc.....

President Bush, Senator Lott, Governor Romney - when they talk about or address them?

That always irked me - these people are "former's" and not in that office now - they should be addressed as "Mr". or "Former (insert seat held).

Only sitting elected officials should be addressed by their current title.

Take Ed Rendall on MSNBC. He is no longer a governor. Why do they always introduce him as governor? If they want to introduce him - they should say former governor Rendall.

I know that if you talked to a Chris Matthews about this - he would say he does it out of respect for the person.

Well a sitting President should have the same respect and should be addressed as President Obama or Mr. Obama - not just Obama.

That is my opinion on this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Cause they keep the honorific for life

Even in the more liberal AP style, which msnbc uses.

[OldDem2012]

15. The correct protocol is to call the President: Mr. President, or President ____, or the President...

...and ALL sitting presidents should be addressed this way. Even former office-holders are addressed by their old titles such as Governor, Ambassador, Senator, etc.

The media begins shifting away from using the Presidential honorifics when the president gets involved in some kind of scandal. For instance:

* President Johnson became Mr. Johnson or just plain LBJ after he escalated the US involvement in Vietnam and the casualties mounted;
* After the Watergate story broke, President Nixon became Mr. Nixon;
* President Carter became Mr. Carter as the economy worsened and the hostage rescue attempt failed in Iran;
* President Reagan became Mr. Reagan as the Iranian-Contra scandal unfolded;
* President George H. W. Bush became Mr. Bush as his economy spiraled out of control;
* President Clinton became Mr. Clinton or worse when the Lewinsky story came to light;
* President George W. Bush became Mr. Bush when it became clear the "mission" in Iraq was very far from accomplished and the financial collapse took place with little or no reaction;

And now we have President Obama who is vilified on a daily basis for no good reason by far-right goose-stepping extremists. My question is why exactly has NPR decided to participate in this basic lack of professional politeness?

[Recursion]

17. President, unlike Senator or Ambassador, is a question of billet not status

Senator who's-it and Ambassador so-and-so should by protocol always be referred to as that; a President is someone who presides over a given body, and is not given a permanent status by that. Protocol fascinates me.