Megyn Marie Kelly was her birth name. Her dad was Irish, mom was a mixture of Italian and German. She was raised Catholic. So at least her name isn’t fake.
She got an undergraduate degree in political science from Syracuse, then went on to get her JD at Albany Law School. She worked as an attorney for nearly a decade before getting into broadcasting for a local ABC affiliate in Washington, DC, then a year later got hired on to work at Fox News.
…And that’s more than I ever wanted or needed to know about that woman.
I very rarely use my “doctor” title for a few reasons:
I don’t care.
I had my fill of titles in the army.
People assume I’m a medical doctor. I definitely don’t use it when I fly.
But really see #1. I’d rather people be impressed with my knowledge, skillz, etc. than a title. If I cannot convey myself an expert in my field without the use of “doctor”, then I don’t deserve the title in the first place.
Also, one thing I learnt doing a PhD is I know nothing.
That being said, I don’t like being called “Mister”. It is either first name or doctor. My colleagues tell me I don’t use it enough and it is confusing to undergraduates. I often joke “I’m a doctor, but not the useful kind.”
In any case, Megyn Kelly is nasty to attack Dr. Biden this way.
My father, an MD, felt the same way. He wasn’t formal by a long shot and was fine with first names. But he didn’t like Mister. I think it related to issues with his father.
“It doesn’t fit my definition of how I think things should be therefore I am going to pretend it doesn’t exist and/or make fun of it” seems to be unusually prevalent in conservative thinking. See also: trans people.
Here is a thread of almost 300 posts from late 2020 on the topic of when & whether using the title “Doctor” is appropriate for both MDs and other flavors of folks with advanced degrees. Of course it was started in response to some RW jerkwad poking fun at Dr. Jill Biden.
This cite includes a reference to an earlier 100+ post thread about the same topic but started in reference to a non-celebrity PhD’s attitude to his title.
So this particular issue raised by Kelly’s current bloviations has already been well-litigated here.
None of which takes away from Kelly being a deplorable playing to the deplorable seats. But the “who should call themselves ‘Dr.’ when?” debate is a distraction from that righteous Kelly-bashing we all (me certainly included) enjoy so much.
I have a PhD, and when someone calls me “Dr. —-,” I’ll almost always say “but I’m not a real doctor.” Only happens occasionally. But am I being nasty to myself?
No, I agree with you on that. Obviously, the difference is in intent, tone, audience, and situation. Context.
Right, if someone introduces you as Dr. Map, and before you have a chance to show your humility, someone overhears and says, “But your not a real doctor!” they are being nasty.
Yep. If she’s what someone described upthread as a professional troll, there is a large contingent of people who eat that stuff up, because the disrespect and vitriol are aimed at those who they perceive as their enemies. But if she’s nice, respectful, and sticks to actual issues, nobody cares- they can watch the news, read the newspapers, etc… to get the actual news.
That’s a fundamental issue with Twitter- the very nature of the platform rewards more extreme tweets than it does sane, balanced, and well-thought out ones.
What I never understood why NBC took such a gamble on her several years ago. Boy they promoted the bejeezus out of her and her show but it lasted about a scaramucci. Did they really think a leopard would change its spots? She’s really nothing more than a female Rush Limbaugh- peddling outrage and hate makes her lots of money. If liberals were as shallow as conservatives, we’d see similar media stars on the left but it doesn’t work nearly as well.
