Tag Archives: teleprompter

“Good Writing has an Authenticity of Its Own”

Nice piece from former Bush 43 speechwriter turned Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson on “What the Teleprompter Teaches“: …it is a mistake to argue that the uncrafted is somehow more authentic.  Those writers and commentators who prefer the unscripted, who use “rhetoric” as an epithet, who see the teleprompter as a linguistic push-up bra, do […]

Obama Presser: No Reported Injuries

Not an especially scintillating presidential press conference last night, but few are. Hopefully, some teenagers planning to tune in to American Idol were unwittingly served up a lesson in American democracy instead. Two quick thoughts on a couple of hobby horses. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos reported on his blog (“George’s Bottom Line”): “The president had a […]

Prompted by Robert Schlesinger

As Vinca mentioned below, Robert Schlesinger offered his opinion about President Obama’s use of the teleprompter – and given Schlesinger’s thorough knowledge of White House speech history, his opinion should be given weight. But I don’t think he’s entirely right. The crux of Schlesinger’s argument is that there’s no difference between delivering a speech using […]

Prompting Obama

Politico‘s Carol Lee writes about President Obama’s ubiquitous teleprompter (which I’ve mentioned a couple times before). Calling it the president’s “safety net,” Lee writes: Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual – not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events large […]

Who Ya Talkin’ To?

I tuned into President Obama’s East Room statement/press conference this evening mainly to see if he’d use the teleprompter. He did use it during the first segment of his remarks and I think it hurt him. The prompter, as I noted earlier, is designed to help the speaker look at his audience more naturally. In a large […]

Watcha Readin’?

On Friday I noticed that President Obama used a teleprompter when delivering his remarks on the economy in the East Room. I thought it was unusual because the East Room is a pretty intimate venue. I usually associate the teleprompter with bigger crowds and bigger spaces. I can’t think of a time when President Bush […]