The Public Interest

I - and much of the newsroom, including those who didn’t vote for him - have been perplexed for some time at the controversy over President Barack Obama’s use of the TelePrompTer.

We all are wondering what the big deal is.

I will grant that the man is not the most skilled at using it - particuarly when it’s one of those “side-to-side” dealies.

But I don’t get criticism like this, or this, or this.

Please explain: what’s the big deal?

Presidents in the past have long used prompters. Sarah Palin did for this speech.

What is the point, here?

He should read from a piece of paper? Is that it?

He should always extemporize? Is that it?

Wouldn’t he get just as much if not more criticism for taking either of those paths?

Have you yourself ever tried to use a teleprompter? It’s a device I operate every day, for a straight hour, between 5 and 6pm. The prompters we have at NewsChannel9 are similar to the one you see at left - there is a “reverse image” TV screen that is placed parallel to the floor, and the camera lens is covered by a mirror that the anchor “looks through.”

I can assure you that when the prompter goes down, it’s not pretty, or fun (thankfully, those instances are rare, knock on wood). To prepare for this possibility, anchors always keep track of where they are in the newscast with their physical scripts, just in case.

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson addresses the prompter issue in today’s Washington Post, and I think my feelings on the matter are similar to his:

“The speechwriting process that puts glowing words on the teleprompter screen serves a number of purposes. Struggling over the precise formulations of a text clarifies a president’s own thinking. It allows others on his staff to have input — to make their case as a speech is edited. The final wording of a teleprompter speech often brings internal policy debates to a conclusion. And good teamwork between a president and his speechwriters can produce memorable rhetoric — the kind of words that both summarize a historical moment and transform it.

…

During a wobbly first two months, Obama has had many problems. But using an autocue isn’t one of them. A teleprompter speech represents the elevation of writing in politics. And good writing has an authenticity of its own.”

And also, from the same piece, this interesting historical nugget that you can use the next time you want to impress with trivia:

“If anyone is to blame for this technological dependence, it is probably Fred Barton, an actor from the 1950s. As author Laurie Brown tells the story, Barton was having trouble memorizing the vast number of lines required for live television. So he conceived of a scrolling screen of typed text — an idea he shared with Irving Berlin Kahn (the composer’s nephew) and Hub Schlafly at 20th Century Fox. Soon the device was being used by Milton Berle and actors in various soap operas. In 1952, Schlafly got a call from a man, identified simply as the “Chief,” who wanted a meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria. It turned out to be former president Herbert Hoover, who ended up using a teleprompter for his remarks at that year’s Republican convention.”

So: 1st U.S. president to use a teleprompter: Herbert Hoover.

But what about Truman, & Eisenhower, who were presidents when TV (and the teleprompter) took off?

The answer:

“Aides tried to get Harry Truman to use them, but he scowled that it would make him look insincere. Dwight Eisenhower became the first president to put them to use, but he was not a fan either, grousing to aides about having to “use that da[rn] teleprompter.”"

What do you think?

SEE ALSO: Robert Schlesinger

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