"Mister Obama and Vice-president Biden..." - Scott Pelley

[trof]

This was Pelley's lead in to tonight's CBS Evening News.
Is not "Mister" Obama's proper title "President"?
Why was Biden "Vice-president" and Obama "Mister"?

Maybe you think it's pissy, but it just makes me mad.

[sheshe2]

1. I don't think it is pissy at all.

It is blatant disrespect of our first Black President.

[MadDAsHell]

18. Out of a dozen possible explanations for why he used those words…

Laziness, misspeaking, confusion, actually using "Mister" as a term of RESPECT, you default to...

...because he's black? WTF?

[sheshe2]

19. Yes!

[charlyvi]

26. Oh please

because you both disagree on an interpretation of what a newscaster called the president, she has a sad perspective on life and is unhappy? Hyperbole much? Or do you just naturally default to insult when someone disagrees with you?

[yardwork]

27. That's exactly what I think, and I'm white.

Sounds like deliberate disrespect of the president.

I've known rural black doctors whose patients couldn't bring themselves to call them "Doctor." Ignoring their titles is a common way to show disrespect to professional black people in the south.

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

2. Not pissy at all...

The wingnuts have worked hard to demean not only President Obama, but also demean the office of President of the United States.

The lack of adult restraint so glaringly exhibited by tRump began long ago and was exemplified by the brain-dead congressman who shouted out "You lie" during the State of the Union.

Rethugs should have condemned that one the moment it happened. But they were way too busy making President Obama, in the words of their weak leader, "a one-term President."

Shameful.

[Ineeda]

11. I've often wondered

whether things might have been different for the past 7-1/2 years if President Obama had stopped that speech immediately and called out Rep. Wilson - by name - then and there. Although there was no way of knowing so early in his presidency, but being polite gained him nothing. (I do love our president's ever present dignity and class, though.)

[3catwoman3]

30. I wish he...

...had. Nancy Pelosi's glare was one for the books.

[blogslut]

3. Sigh

It's proper style form. The first time in an article or news report, the president is referred to as "President Obama", after that, calling him Mr. Obama is perfectly fine.

[trof]

6. That I knew. In another life, I was a newspaper reporter.

But thanks, anyway.
What got me was the juxtaposition.
I quote, verbatim, "MISTER Obama and VICE-PRESIDENT Biden".

[blogslut]

7. I would imagine the president had been mentioned before in the broadcast

As a former newspaper reporter you also know that repetition is frowned upon. Not to mention that "President Obama and Vice President Biden" is far too wordy. I suppose Mr. Pelley could have said "The President and the Vice-President..."

I'm cool. I like Scott.

[rury]

9. I'm NOT cool with it

It's disrespectful. He could have said "the president and Vice-President Biden" if it was not the first mention of President Obama.

[MadDAsHell]

20. Uh...respect? He's not a king.

You're in the wrong country if you expect people to bow down and worship any President, regardless of his party.

People can call the President what they damn well please. I promise you I called Bush much worse than "mister."

[Person 2713]

4. Yep pisses me off too

[Ccarmona]

13. That

And the Repubs referring to the "Democrat" Party, disdaining the proper Democratic Party. They must feel it's a sign of their "superiority" or whatever they're trying to prove.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. All part of the Media's

owners disrespect of our President. Listen to the so called Talent on Corporate Media,and this theme is so glaring. When it comes to any Rethug,they are always addressed by proper title. This is all about the continuing disrespect of people of color regardless of Title.

[Croney]

8. Anecdote

I once worked for a great man named Thomas Schelling. He said that people assumed that Professor Schelling or Doctor Schelling were his preferred titles, but that actually the title that stood above those was Mister Schelling.

[xloadiex]

10. Pelly has called him

Mr Obama going back quite a way. I remember mentioning it to my husband over a year ago how disrespectful I thought it sounded.

[Augiedog]

12. You can't possibly think a media darling could be racist? Nah, not in egalitarian America.

[Snarkoleptic]

14. Other frat boy labeling that pisses me off is "Democrat Party"

I always correct the speaker, regardless of polite company.

[SCantiGOP]

16. "Democrat Party"

is never accidental. It was started by Rush Limbaugh and he even addressed the fact that he used it because it irritated Democrats.

[HubertHeaver]

23. It goes back farther than that. The pig from wisconsin,

memorialized in the Pogo comic strip of the '50s as malarkey, used the disrespectful term as a matter of course.

[SCantiGOP]

28. I remember Pogo

Did a great job on George Wallace.

[July]

32. When I point out that it's the DemocratIC Party, properly named,

and get the reply that "it's only two letters, everyone knows what you mean" is "Okay, I'll be referring to your party as the Rublican Party henceforth. What? It's only two letters."

[kacekwl]

15. I've always found Scott Pelley

strangely creepy. Might be just me.

[AllyCat]

17. Not pissy. Spot on.

[bucolic_frolic]

22. Consider the source

A Texan and a Republican

Sort of like, down south, calling a black or a northerner "boy"

or an acknowledgement that the administration is nearing an end

Being charming with invisible disrespect

[bucolic_frolic]

31. I could be wrong but I think

on the same broadcast, with Scott Pelley, GWB, as well as GHWB back in Dan Rather
days, were sometimes referred to as "Mr. Bush".

Be interesting to see if anyone ever studied that subtlety.

[AgadorSparticus]

24. That is really shitty. Ugh......

[yardwork]

25. That goes on all the time in the south. Yep. I recognize that.

Disgraceful. I hope he gets in trouble.

[nadine_mn]

29. I caught that too and pretty much had the same reaction

It really felt disrespectful - well at least they don't introduce the FLOTUS as Obama's babies' mama

[brooklynite]

33. Can I ruin your outrage for you?

You left out the opening line of the story:

Grief beyond despair. Those are the words of President Obama late today after meeting with families of the fallen from the Orlando nightclub Massacre.

The CBS Manual of Style and Usage format is to use the title in the first reference and "Mr." or "Ms." in subsequent references. Biden wasn't mentioned in the first sentence, so his title was given in the second.

Here's something from the New York Times:

ORLANDO, Fla. — It was a wrenching ritual that has become all too familiar for President Obama.

One by one on Thursday, inside an arena in downtown Orlando where friends and relatives of the victims of the nation’s deadliest mass shooting had congregated, Mr. Obama embraced mourners sick with loss. He told them that the nation stood with them and that his own heart was broken, offering words of comfort for a tragedy that he confessed he could not fathom.

“Their grief is beyond description,” Mr. Obama said after a two-hour meeting with the mourners. “Through their pain and through their tears, they told us about the joy that their loved ones had brought to their lives.”