Moderator raises eyebrows by refusing to call Mehmet Oz ‘Dr Oz’

Television reporters Dennis Owens of ABC27 and Lisa Sylvester of Pittsburgh’s WPXI spent the entire debate referring to the ex-Columbia University medical school instructor as ‘Mr Oz’

The local journalists moderating the only debate between Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman and his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz may have given the GOP candidate, a former cardiothoracic surgeon, a bit of status anxiety during their Tuesday night sparring session.

Television reporters Dennis Owens of ABC27 and Lisa Sylvester of Pittsburgh’s WPXI both spent the entire debate referring to the ex-Columbia University medical school instructor as “Mr Oz,” rather than with the honourific “Doctor,” as would ordinarily be customary for a person with a medical degree.

While a physician whose specialty is surgery would be properly referred to as “mister” in the UK and some other countries, medical doctors in the US are typically called “doctor” no matter their specialty.

While the moderators’ decision to eschew the medical honourific for the GOP candidate may be a surprise to people familiar with him from his years hosting the syndicated television programme The Dr Oz Show, it is consistent with other local news outlets’ style guides, which instruct journalists to call him “mister” because his medical degree isn’t relevant.

For example, the Philadelphia Inquirer instructs journalists not to use it “for anyone with the title, whether they are a medical doctor or have a doctorate in a nonmedical field, to avoid complaints of unequal treatment from individuals who worked hard to achieve doctorates in nonmedical fields”.

Only the subjects of obituaries, and late the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr are permitted as exceptions.