PBS anchors refers to Ben Carson as ‘only’ physician in 2016 race – but she’s forgetting someone

The correction appeared online shortly after PBS received inquiries from the Washington Examiner. A similar correction was issued on air Thursday evening.

—

PBS NewHour’s Gwen Ifill incorrectly referred to 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson as the “only physician in the race,” forgetting apparently that there are two doctors competing in the GOP primary.

Along with Carson, who is a retired neurosurgeon, the 2016 race also features Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who practiced ophthalmology for nearly two decades before being swept into office during the 2010 November midterm elections.

This appears to have escaped Ifill this week.

“[M]aking the cut, the only physician in the race, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson,” the PBS anchor said at the beginning of her Tuesday interview with Carson.

She repeatedly emphasized that Carson is a retired physician, saying at one point that his former occupation makes him “very unique in this race from all the other more than a dozen candidates.”

Ifill also queried Carson – “as a physician” – about the Affordable Care Act.

“Another question to you as a physician. You have called for the repeal, like many, probably all Republican candidates have, of the president’s health care plan. What would you replace it with?” she asked.

Carson responded, “I would replace it with a system that put the care back in the hands of the patients and the health care providers.

“It would revolve around health savings accounts, which everybody would have made available to them from the day they’re born until the day they die, at which time they can pass it on to their family,” he added. “I would pay for it with the very same dollars that we pay for traditional health care with, although we wouldn’t have to use as much.”

A spokesperson for PBS told the Washington Examiner’s media desk that they would correct the record later this week.