Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Titular

Listening to Washington Week - a great, wonderful, intelligent programme - I am bothered yet again by certain journalists repeatedly referring to her as "Mrs. Clinton," whereas Obama is "Senator Obama" or "Barack Obama." It's not the first time I've heard it, so I finally looked up the transcript to find out who's doing it. Step forward Todd S. Purdum of Vanity Fair and Michael Duffy of TIME.

Two things: first, Washington Week, you may put in the transcript "Ms. Clinton," but what they said was "Mrs.", whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Second, four times might not seem much, but it's infinitely more than "Mr. Obama" or "Mr. McCain."

Just a thought.

ps I still want BO to win, I think, but am repeatedly confronted with examples, as above, of differentiation in journalistic treatment of the MEN versus the WOMAN.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you know who you'd like to win. I really don't. The main reason? I really don't think Obama can beat McCain. And we all know that Senator Clinton is universally hated so he'd probably win if she wins. So, I feel like we're screwed, like we should start packing and heading somewhere else, not my country, though, it too sucks right now, so I feel screwed. Did I say that I feel screwed?

wind-up-bird said...

Screwed yes, up down and every whichway. I can't take it anymore. The Obama race speech is important. Don't we also need a gender speech by someone? I watched two religious pundits duke it out today over whether Obama should or should not have left his church when his pastor started making "charged comments." Oi.