And speaking of speechwriters ... (Shades of Gray)

And speaking of speechwriters ...

After 15 years of covering the speechwriting community, I finally came to a loose philosophy on whether speechwriters should remain anonymous.

I articulate it here.

Do you agree?

Posted by David Murray on December 7, 2007 8:11 AM | Permalink

Comments (5)

Eileen:

David - you wrote: "Everybody knows politicians and CEOs have speechwriters," but my experience is not the same. I find that very, very few people think that anyone (Ray Romano, George Bush, the Mac guy) has anyone writing that stuff. Only those of us who are in the writing business really give that any thought, to be honest. Now, maybe I'm surrounding myself with idiots, but seriously, I rarely come across someone who, unless reminded, realizes that these are not all their own thoughts coming to them AT THAT MOMENT.

Posted by Eileen | December 7, 2007 10:35 AM

Posted on December 7, 2007 10:35

Jane Greer:

Eileen's experience is mine, too. This is the very reason that the Writer's Guild went on strike: even the people they write FOR tend to forget about them.

Posted by Jane Greer | December 7, 2007 11:28 AM

Posted on December 7, 2007 11:28

David Murray:

Well you two might be right on that score.

But these multitudes who have no idea that Bush has a speechwriter—are THEY going to be interested in reading about how one speechwriter thinks he didn't get enough credit from the other speechwriter for writing this or that speech?

David

Posted by David Murray | December 7, 2007 1:37 PM

Posted on December 7, 2007 13:37

Jane Greer:

No, no, no. Your article is dead right. Who EVER wants to listen to whining from ANYONE? Not me--and I CARE about writing and credit.

Posted by Jane Greer | December 7, 2007 1:53 PM

Posted on December 7, 2007 13:53

David Murray:

Right. Agreed.

Posted by David Murray | December 7, 2007 1:59 PM

Posted on December 7, 2007 13:59