Tucker Carlson added misogyny to his White Power Hour when he teamed up with Fox’s Lisa Boothe to denigrate Jill Biden’s doctorate in education, mixed with the special brand of maliciousness Fox calls humor.
Never mind that Fox applies the “Dr.” title to contributor Alveda King despite the fact that her degree is merely honorary. Don’t hold your breath for any jokes about that from Carlson or Boothe, though.
Carlson cracked his first “quip” in his opening monologue:
CARLSON: An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal pointed out that Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, isn’t actually a real doctor. Sorry, she’s not going to be treating for high blood pressure. Dr. Jill Biden has the very same degree as Dr. Bill Cosby does, which is one degree from Dr. Pepper, but Joe Biden and his friends didn’t want to hear that.
Carlson was referring to this column, by Joseph Epstein. It snidely and gratuitously argues against calling Ph.D. recipients “Dr.” by specifically targeting Jill Biden. It opens, for example, with this swipe:
Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo: a bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter. Any chance you might drop the “Dr.” before your name? “Dr. Jill Biden ” sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.
With thousands of Americans dying from coronavirus every day and Donald Trump and his supporters trying to sabotage the presidential election, I can’t get too upset over the column. But some high-profile liberals did – and that is cause for celebration for the American-can’t-be-too-divided Carlson and Boothe.
“Well, Tucker, it's Dr. Jill Biden, and don't you forget it or else,” Boothe sneered before reading the quote “that really triggered the left.” Boothe said “the kicker” was that AP style does not use “Dr.” to refer to academic credentials, “which is precisely the point” of the column. Actually, the point was to use that as a vehicle for attacking Biden. Otherwise, why single her out as opposed to, say, Alveda King or “Dr.” Sebastian Gorka, a former Fox contributor who had a stint in the White House as deputy assistant to Donald Trump despite a lack of serious credentials in terrorism?
Jill Biden, on the other hand, is a professor and dedicated educator who plans to continue teaching after she becomes first lady.
Both Boothe and Carlson called the backlash to Epstein “hilarious.” What Carlson found “so hilarious” is “how unbelievably touchy” the critics are. “They have no sense of humor about this," Mr. Funnybone accused. "It's like going up to a Panamanian general and asking like, where did all of those medals come from? You went to a lot of battles, really? No, because they're self-awarded.” Actually, Biden's degree is legit, as even Epstein acknowledged.
Carlson scoffed that critics consider the editorial “a threat to their entire system of credentialism.”
But this was the real delight for Carlson and Boothe: The editorial gave them an excuse to forever deny the future first lady the credential of “Dr.” Just like they previously found an excuse to deny Joe Biden the title of “President-elect.” It was similar to the excuse they used to deny Barack Obama a legitimate presidency.
BOOTHE: Yes. Well, and now, I will have to just refer to her as Jill Biden because of the uproar and I will never be able to refer to as Dr. Jill Biden now because it's ridiculous.
CARLSON: But they are threatened because it is not just Dr. Jill Biden with her ersatz education degree. It's all of them with their dumb degrees from Cornell and Penn and Duke, like we're all supposed to be impressed? They're totally unimpressive.
You can watch it below, from the December 14, 2020 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
