What's in a Name?

So, I'm driving home today, listening to NPR (they do some pretty interesting stories during the 5 o'clock hour). But, I got a sad reminder of just how childish members of the press can be.

Reporting on this last press conference before the Prez heads off to vacation (again?), this reporter mentioned him at least 35 times, sometimes several times in the same sentence. Interestingly, though, I never heard the words "the President" or "President Bush" in any of those references. "Mr. Bush" was his nomenclaturistic choice. I noticed this interesting slight about 7 years ago, after "Mr. Bush" was elected president "by the Supreme Court". All this time, I was cautious about pointing this out, so as to avoid being branded paranoidal or conservative schlep. But when a five minute report solely about the President of the United States never refers to the man whose sound bites are being reported on as anything other than "Mr. Bush", I think it conclusively confirms my suspicions. Not only is it rude, whether you like the man or not, but it is also piss-poor journalism, and sounds very choppy.

I'm just saying...