Megyn Kelly Blasts 'Wannabe' First Lady After Fox Calls Her 'Dr.' Jill Biden: 'Get a Real MD'
If there’s one thing the left is good at, it’s weaponizing language. To the average, moral person, words are used to communicate truth and reality. To a leftist, they are used to gain power.
Words like “racist” and “homophobe” are used to discredit the left’s enemies, terms like “systemic racism” and “patriarchy” are used to cover up their bad arguments. And the word “doctor” is used to give the first lady a false air of accomplishment.
Thankfully, not everyone is falling for the left’s word games. Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly certainly isn’t.
On Sunday, during the Fox broadcast of the NFC Championship Game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers, the famed conservative media personality took to Twitter to blast Jill Biden for insisting on using the title “Dr.” despite only having an Ed.D. (a doctorate in education).
Announcers for this Eagles-49ers game just spotted the First Lady in a box and of course call her “Dr. Jill Biden.” Wonder if she realizes what a wannabe she looks like insisting on this fake title. Get a real MD or just work on your self-esteem.
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) January 29, 2023
“Announcers for this Eagles-49ers game just spotted the First Lady in a box and of course call her ‘Dr. Jill Biden,'” Kelly wrote.
“Wonder if she realizes what a wannabe she looks like insisting on this fake title. Get a real MD or just work on your self-esteem.”
On Monday, on her Siriux XM podcast “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Kelly explained her point in depth.
“Let’s face it – she’s not a real doctor.” @MegynKelly on Dr. Jill Biden’s need to be called “doctor” at all times. Watch the FULL clip ➡: https://t.co/8t70adVkzx pic.twitter.com/GOIOm1yX60
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) January 30, 2023
You might say, “But since Jill Biden did earn a doctorate, doesn’t that mean she’s earned the title of ‘doctor’?”
It’s not just Megyn Kelly who disagrees about the title for “Dr.” Jill.
As UCLA professor Eugene Volokh explained quite nicely in a 2020 article for Reason, in the U.S., it is customary to reserve the title of “Dr.” for individuals with M.D.s.
It’s also sometimes appropriate to use the title of “Dr.” for an individual with a Ph.D., but Jill Biden doesn’t even have that.
According to Volokh, Jill Biden’s Ed.D. required roughly 54 credits of coursework to acquire. In other terms, it is, essentially, a two-year degree.
An M.D., on the other hand, takes an average of 10 to 14 years to complete and a Ph.D. up to eight years.
(Obviously, Kelly’s four words of advice for the first lady: “Get a real MD,” isn’t as easy to follow as it sounds.)
Given this country’s customs when it comes to professional titles, when someone hears the word “doctor” the first thing that comes to mind — outside of educational circles — is an M.D., then a Ph.D.
So, when media figures call the first lady a “doctor,” they are relying on these customs and the public’s lack of knowledge regarding doctorates in order to inflate her professional accomplishments.
In some instances, though, they’re actually reflecting their own ignorance and presuming that the “Dr.” in front of Jill Biden’s name means she actually is a medical doctor.
A perfect example of the results of this manipulation was shown when Whoopi Goldberg actually suggested Jill Biden should become surgeon general.
“I’m hoping Dr. Jill becomes the surgeon general, his wife,” Goldberg said. “She would never do it but, yeah, she’s a hell of a doctor. She’s an amazing doctor.”
(Goldberg admitted her mistake on the same program after a commercial break, as Mediaite reported. “I was wrong about his wife,” she said. “I was wrong, before you start texting and emailing.”)
None of this is to say that Jill Biden has a worthless degree or occupation. Education is a respectable field. However, conflating it with the difficult, work-intensive doctorate in medicine is laughable.
The left is always twisting words to manipulate the public, even for something as petty as making the first lady look like more of a more accomplished woman than she actually is.
CORRECTION, Jan. 31, 2023: An earlier version of this article misstated the network that broadcast the Philadelphia Eagles-San Francisco 49ers game where first lady Jill Biden was referred to as “Dr.”
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