Talk:Josh Earnest

Press Secretary

The New York Times has reported that Earnest has become the new Press Secretary. This article should be updated to reflect this with the proper infobox added. 72.21.198.64 (talk) 18:11, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

Date of birth

Earnest's date of birth keeps being changed (1975? 1977?), but there is no reference for any date (I did a google search too.) I removed the date until someone includes a reference. Bahooka (talk) 15:13, 21 June 2014 (UTC)

In 2012, Josh was reportedly age 37. Thus birth year = 1975. As to birthday being March 10, that is disputed by March 10, 2015 tweet from Tara Vales, press assistant for Steny Hoyer, Democratic Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. Vales specifically faults Wikipedia for that misinformation. Given this uncertainty, we must insist on WP:RS to confirm all or any part of birthdate. JohnValeron (talk) 18:28, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Infobox caps

@X4n6:, I don't understand your edit. You point to me a MOS:JOBTITLES guideline, when it seems to me to confirm the opposite of your edit. The "press secretary" isn't a generic job title, it's an official position within the White House. There's no reason to keep them lower case, especially not in the infobox. I also see reliable sources refer to the position in caps, and the title is refered to in caps in the White House Press Secretary article.

Also, if you think the job title should be in lower case, you might want to do the same thing to all WHPS articles for consistency.κατάσταση 15:35, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

@Katastasi: Per the first sentence in our style guide on job titles:

Offices, titles, and positions such as president, king, emperor, pope, bishop, abbot, and executive director are common nouns and therefore should be in lower case when used generically: Mitterrand was the French president.

French president = White House press secretary. While some sources may have different guidelines, WP has ours. Re: your question about consistency, as you hadn't noticed, myself and others routinely correct title errors when we see them. X4n6 (talk) 21:12, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

@X4n6: The problem is WHPS is not a generic position. When referring to a press secretary in general, that would be correct. However, you don't write "vice president of the United States", but instead "Vice President of the United States". White House Press Secretary is a specific position and should be in caps, especially in the infobox. This is not a "French president" situation, not at all. See the WHPS article, it refers to the official name of the position in caps, while using "press secretary" when referring to the general position. Same in President of the United States.

And my concern with consistency is that you have edited Sean Spicer, for instance, and have forgotten to change the infobox. κατάσταση 21:30, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

@Katastasi: You're still missing the point: "press secretary" is a compound noun. It is also a common noun. While "White House" is a proper noun. And on this project, we actually do write "vice president of the United States" for that very reason. Vice president and president are common nouns are they not? But I think it's fine to cap it for the infobox, but only because infobox guidelines are different. So I'll change it. X4n6 (talk) 21:43, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

@X4n6: I see mostly "Vice President" and "President" in caps, regardless of their beings common nouns. The guideline specifies that common nouns should be in lower case when used generically, not always. When referring to the specific title, it would be in caps.

@Katastasi: Yes you do. And it's wrong. Where I and others encounter it, we correct it. Unfortunately, most editors, particularly newer ones, aren't aware of the MOS and just make assumptions. I've often considered creating bots. X4n6 (talk) 22:03, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Actually, it depends upon context. It is always correct to write, "Emmanuel Macron is the French president." (Proper adjective modifying proper noun." It is NEVER correct to write, "He is the president of France." In that case, one correctly says "He is President of France" (the article is optional). One must also be very careful when quoting pre-19th century documents. It was historic practice to capitalise all nouns in English, proper and common alike; but only proper adjectives are capitalised, not common adjectives. Thus, the Declaration of Independence - both common nouns of which are capitalised - says, "united States of America." America is capitalised because it is a proper noun. States is capitalised because common nouns were still capitalised in English at the time (as they still are in German). But "united" is NOT capitalised in the document because it is a common adjective. The name "United States of America" was not decided until the autumn of 1777, when our first federal constitution was drafted. So at the time the Declaration was written - note "Declaration" is properly capitalised because I am referring to a specific "Declaration," not to declarations in general; and the reader will understand that (at least if s/he learns good English) - "united" was not yet part of a proper name, which would would have made it a proper adjective instead of a common adjective. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:645:C300:5120:F9CF:2BD:AA63:B189 (talk • contribs)

Not according to the Chicago Manual of Style and the Oxford Style Guide. Wikipedia's style guides are generally based on Oxford and Chicago and other major style guides. That's why it is correct to write "He is the president of France", with lower case 'p'. Binksternet (talk) 23:08, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

But I agree that, if not refering to the full official title, it should be lower case. Same for "vice president" and "president". I agree with the infobox edit as well. κατάσταση 21:52, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Good. And by the way, not to be nitpicky, but just as an fyi, I've noticed that you routinely omit the double "r" in "referred" and "referring." Again, just as a courtesy, so that you're aware. And a tad... humorous, under the circumstances. X4n6 (talk) 22:03, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, I was not very familiar with the guideline, as you can notice. Yeah, I misspell words sometimes, I've been somewhat careless recently... thanks for giving me a heads-up. κατάσταση 22:09, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Glad to help and pleased we got it resolved. And now that you know more about the MOS, you'll probably be fixing errors as you see them as well. Happy editing! X4n6 (talk) 22:21, 2 March 2017 (UTC)