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June 12, 2005
More On Speeches
Via my Mom (who is awesome):
The Chronicle of Higher Education has been reading my mind. They write:
It's a time-honored tradition for celebrities who are in demand as commencement speakers to use ghost writers. And when all else fails, the speakers have been known to simply deliver the same speech they gave the previous year. So it was that Tim Russert, the NBC newsman and best-selling author, found himself addressing Harvard students on Wednesday, at the university's annual Class Day event. It wasn't a commencement address, but it was one of four graduation-related speeches he has delivered this spring. Turns out, the speeches had more than a little in common. As first reported last month in the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Mass., Mr. Russert has apparently delivered the same basic commencement speech for several years. (According to The Chronicle's commencement-speaker database, he has spoken on 17 campuses since 2000.) At Harvard on Wednesday, the students were ready. Equipped with cards listing pat phrases from past speeches, set out in a bingo-like format, they ticked off the passages as Mr. Russert spoke and then, having completed a row, shouted out "Bingo!" More details of the scheme are reported in an article in The Harvard Crimson, the student-run newspaper.
In case you were wondering who is speaking, you can also search the Chronicle for graduation speakers (requires subscription). A quick search on Google for Commencement Speakers brings up a whole load of other problems associated with the speakers these days. First of all, schools compete to get famous speakers, but that does not mean that a speaker will be any good, or even appropriate. Speakers can run into problems with religious questions, as Crossswalk.com reports on Senator Hilary's controversial honorary degrees from Catholic Universities. Ben Shapiro of Townhall.com thinks that all speakers are too liberal. Read: my problem with political agendas in a graduation speech - but for the record I don't think it can ruin a speech because Jon Stewart gave a horrendously partisan speech that I liked, because it was funny and honest.
But anyways - it looks like other people have had these thoughts before me. How disappointing. Humanity.org has a list of great commencement speeches in their article on 'the art of the commencement speech'. This should be required reading for all speakers.
Posted by storbert at June 12, 2005 2:31 PM
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