Welcome Public Relations students!
To begin, we will
examine the structure and a strategy exercised in Bill Clinton's preview to his
State of the Union address from January 26, 1998. This particular press release
has an interesting ending. Then we will delve into the official admission to the
Monica Lewinsky scandal.
The address on January
26th 1998 kicks off with a smattering of thank you's. Thanks are giving to
those watching, those in attendance, and to those who have helped former
President Bill Clinton personally and professionally to reach the career point
he was at. Which is all fine and dandy if you're one of the people being
personally recognized. I think it is pretty much common knowledge that most
important key to addressing ANY audiences is getting. their. attention. He
gets to the point of the speech after about a minute of thank you's. Now don't
get me wrong, everyone deserves their moment in the spotlight, there is
nothing inherently wrong with giving people credit, however, even
though I was too young to understand the discourse at hand, it is my belief
that the people tuning in were there to gain information about the scandal that
had been developing over the past months. This is where he employs some
carefully thought out public relations strategy.
Clinton starts the
remainder of the speech with a thesis,
Tomorrow, in the State of the Union Address, I will spell out what we seek to do on behalf of our children to prepare them for the 21st century. But I want to talk a little bit about education today and about this announcement in that context.
following that, he
summarizes what they have accomplished over the past year in terms of
education. This is what some public relations educators would call utilizing
values. (obviously, there are other ways of saying that values matter.)
Utilizing in the sense of speaking about what is important to people so they
can A) connect with the speaker, and B) actually absorb the message at hand,
otherwise, why should the public listen if you are not saying something that
directly applies to them? Now that we've had our "term of week" let's
move on to the decision made at the latter end of the speech.
He wraps up with this
infamous conclusion,
Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time—never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people.
this statement, the way
it was delivered, starts off with Clinton portraying a driven All-American
man that is working hard for the public to ensure we get the right information
when we need it. Then... *dun dun duuunnnn* we get the "I want you to
listen to me" blurb and it gives off an end of discussion kind of
feel. To me it sounds like my mom when she says "This conversation is
over, go to your room!" This concluding statement is great because he goes
from hard working American, to framed, to a disgruntled hard working American.
photo 28 of 32
That being said, the
previous declaration of denial was refuted on August 17, 1998 after testifying
to a grand jury. I'm sorry, but that is a
flat out public relations DISASTER! I, personally, think he either should have
fessed up right from the get-go, or denied, denied, denied. Keep your story
straight. It is common knowledge to all communications majors that your writing
needs to be clear, correct, concise, and complete. By denying the initial
accusations, Clinton used ambiguity in his statements regarding Ms.
Lewinsky, thus being unclear. He was incorrect because... well... he was lying.
He was not concise because he was beating around the bush... no pun intended.
And his message was not complete until months later.
But on the bright side,
we can learn from his mistakes. :]
Tune in next week!
Westboro Baptist Church press releases will be on the chopping block!
The video of the January 26th broadcast can be found at the following hyperlink.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV6yhEbEw9c
The transcription of the January 26th broadcast can be found at the following hyperlink.
http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3930
The video of the August 17th broadcast can be found at the following hyperlink.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r4e5Wg4PDI
The transcription of the August 17th broadcast can be found at the following hyperlink.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/lewinsky_address/address.html
594 words without quotes or citations
