Mayor Bill de Blasio: Is It His Speechwriters' Fault? Part 1

Is he giving a boring speech?

Here's a new one. New York major Mayor Bill de Blasio complained in emails that his speeches were boring, but it wasn't his fault. It was his speechwriters' fault. They were writing bad speeches. It wasn't his fault that he was boring.

In one email, he wrote: "I’m really suffering because of underwhelming texts to work from."

Wow.

Where do I begin?

First, as recently as my youth, public speakers were embarrassed to admit that they hadn't written their own speeches. They found ways to pretend that they didn't use speechwriters. To give a speech written by someone else once seemed akin to plagiarism. Many audience members, even today, would like to think that they are hearing the speakers' own thoughts, not the thoughts of some consultant or staff member who ghost-wrote the speech.

Second, if you give a speech, you, and you alone, are responsible for what you say. Period.

Third, good public speakers who use speechwriters routinely rework a speech until they are happy with it. Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan actually lectured their speech writers and made numerous edits, big and small. If you can't do that, you should probably head for your local college to take a public speaking class and learn how.

Fourth, never put anything in an email. Have people learned nothing from the email missteps of Hillary Clinton? How about Donald Trump, Jr.'s infamous "I love it" email? Important people, listen to me: stop saying stupid things in emails. Don't make me remind you again.

Well, happy New Year, everybody.

Photo of Bill de Blasio by Thomas Wood, used by permission