You could be forgiven if you thought this week that President Trump had replaced outgoing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin with this guy:
After all, the breaking news headlines said the same thing: Shulkin would be replaced by “Trump’s doctor.”
Many — myself included! — wondered at first if initial reports were referring to the very eccentric and not-exactly-confidence-inspiring Harold Bornstein (pictured above), Trump’s longtime personal physician. As it turns out, they were not. Rather, newsrooms were talking about U.S. Navy rear admiral and White House medical doctor Ronny Jackson.
Imagine that. He’s a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy and a physician to presidents (plural), and the press refers to him simply as “Trump’s doctor.”
“V.A. chief is shown the door, and in comes Trump’s doctor,” read a headline published by the New York Times.
The BBC published a headline on its website that reads, “Trump picks his doctor to replace Shulkin as veterans secretary.” It also tweeted, “Trump picks his doctor to replace Shulkin as veterans secretary.”
“Shulkin to resign and President Trump will nominate his personal physician,” read a headline published by Reuters.
USA Today asked, “Can Trump’s doctor cure what ails VA?” “Trump ousts Shulkin from Veterans Affairs, taps his doctor,” reported ABC News.
The Christian Science Monitor went with this, “Trump selects personal physician Ronny Jackson to head Veteran Affairs.”
“Trump ousts Veterans Affairs chief David Shulkin and replaces him with his personal physician,” read National Post’s headline.
First, Jackson is not just Trump’s personal physician. He serves the White House and whomever is its chief resident at the moment. Jackson has carried out that duty faithfully since he was first appointed to the position in 2013 by former President Barack Obama.
Secondly, the above headlines aren’t necessarily disrespectful. To be fair, there isn’t proof that these newsrooms were even going for that. But after the sneering we saw last week when the White House announced the addition of Ambassador John Bolton and economist Larry Kudlow, you can be excused for thinking there’s similar whiff of condescension in these Jackson headlines.
Lastly, can we talk about conspiracists in the press? One can say the above headlines aren’t necessarily disrespectful or insane, but the same can’t be said for the journalists who floated the idea Wednesday that Jackson may have lied earlier about Trump’s health because he has been secretly, uh, angling for Shulkin’s job at the VA or something.
Ah, the classic “critics say!” method of circulating ridiculous pet theories. Well done.
