Comments on: Fire the Speechwriters? http://www.podiumpundits.com/2009/09/08/fire-the-speechwriters-2/ Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:47:42 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: davidmurray http://www.podiumpundits.com/2009/09/08/fire-the-speechwriters-2/comment-page-1/#comment-328 davidmurray Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:30:40 +0000 http://www.podiumpundits.com/?p=2263#comment-328 Latimer's column struck me as at once disingenuous, opportunistic and harmless. Hard to believe he believed what he was saying. Easy to believe he prepared the piece cynically, calculated to make an editor bite: "hey, speechwriter calls for firing all the speechwriters." <br><br>It reminded me of another sound-and-fury-signifying-nothing op/ed 16 years ago in the Wall Street Journal. "Speechwriters of the world, get lost!" wrote speechwriter Phil Theibert.<br><br>Such pieces get written because speechwriters know the formula for publicity—and because their professional experience has made them utterly comfortable in the knowledge that op/eds don't move mountains.<br><br>Or even molehills, as the case may be. Latimer's column struck me as at once disingenuous, opportunistic and harmless. Hard to believe he believed what he was saying. Easy to believe he prepared the piece cynically, calculated to make an editor bite: “hey, speechwriter calls for firing all the speechwriters.”

It reminded me of another sound-and-fury-signifying-nothing op/ed 16 years ago in the Wall Street Journal. “Speechwriters of the world, get lost!” wrote speechwriter Phil Theibert.

Such pieces get written because speechwriters know the formula for publicity—and because their professional experience has made them utterly comfortable in the knowledge that op/eds don't move mountains.

Or even molehills, as the case may be.

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