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The Ethos Factor: Memorable and Forgettable Presidential Epideictic Oration
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Walton, Janel |
| Copyright Year | 2011 |
| Abstract | I remember 28 January 1986. I don’t recall the name of my fifth grade teacher, but I remember he wheeled a television into the classroom that day, excited to let my class watch the live broadcast of the first teacher in space taking off in the space shuttle Challenger. I’ll never forget the way he reacted when we all watched that shuttle explode before it even left Earth’s atmosphere; I had never before seen a teacher at a loss for answers to give a group of worried and questioning children. Later that evening, I watched the news at home with my family. At first, as usual, I was uninterested in the news, even when I saw President Reagan’s face consuming the entire television screen. But I looked up when he clearly mentioned the children at school who had watched this disaster. My young mind thought he was talking just to me, trying to help me make sense out of the sad day’s events. I also remember 1 February 2003. America was still living in the fearful aftermath of 9/11. I woke that morning to a live news broadcast of the space shuttle Columbia exploding in the sky. The media immediately and speculatively connected this disaster to the terrorist masterminds who had attacked the U.S. eighteen months earlier. Like other Americans, I believed the tenuous connection the media had created and sat on the foot my bed, fearfully awaiting news of how the terrorists had managed this spectacular event. When President Bush finally spoke on live television, he said nothing about the terrorists, nor did he try to quell our fears. Instead, he simply stated the basic details of the event and gave the usual condolences to the astronauts’ loved ones. Reagan’s speech has been hailed by many in the rhetorical community as important and successful. However, this oratorical success was, unfortunately, not duplicated by Bush. The ways in which the two speeches will be remembered can be seen in commentator Carl Cannon’s 2003 article “Mourner-in-Chief.” Cannon turns quickly away from Bush’s recent address to the nation, offering no direct quotes from the speech. Instead, Cannon focuses on Reagan’s celebrated speech from seventeen years earlier as a model of presidential oratory. Bush himself (and his speechwriters) seems to have recognized the effectiveness of Reagan’s Challenger speech, as there are startling parallels between the two speeches. The layout of each is organized in the same manner. Each man begins by stating the purpose of the speech. Each then names the dead, praising the astronauts for their courage. Each speaks of the dangers of space travel, though Americans so often take space missions for granted. Next, each expresses condolences to the astronauts’ loved ones, NASA, and others affected by the tragedy. Finally, each president makes religious references in his final remarks. These similarities are not surprising since both speeches were a response to a major space disaster that was widely viewed on live television. |
| Starting Page | 61 |
| Ending Page | 73 |
| Page Count | 13 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 8 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://cas2.umkc.edu/english/publications/youngscholarsinwriting/documents/8/7%20-%20The%20E%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BDthos%20Factor.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
