In today’s highly connected world, President Obama, and other politicians, can appeal to us in ways that were probably unimaginable to FDR while he was giving his fireside chats. The President can now appeal us through media like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and, of course, television. If you want to hear what the President has to say, you have a multitude of opportunities to do so; but, if you don’t want to hear what he has to say, you also have a multitude of opportunities do avoid him. For example, in the past, all of the major TV channels would play the president’s addresses, and if you wanted to keep watching television, you were pretty much forced to watch the president. But, in “the aughts”—if you even still have cable—you can turn to one of the many extra channels you’re subscribed to, switch over to one of the internet streaming services (like Netflix or Hulu), or just turn off the TV and get on the internet. (Granted, I am pretty young, so I can’t really remember the Clinton years, but...) Starting with President Bush, and continuing with President Obama, it became easy to avoid watching presidential addresses and being exposed to their deliberative rhetoric.
In a time where we can avoid our presidents’ deliberative rhetoric, there are some people who are insert their own deliberative rhetoric, where they “recommend a future course of action” (Bizzell and Herzberg 30) into pop culture, which we willingly consume. The person who gets the most praise for his ability to do this is Aaron Sorkin. In shows like The West Wing and The Newsroom, Sorkin uses his characters as a vehicle to deliver deliberative oratory to viewers. And, unlike when the President gives his State of the Union address, or talks to us about the Fiscal Cliff, we don’t tune out, or turn off; instead, we actually tune in, and turn on—and then repeat the process the next week.
In the opening monologue from the first episode of The Newsroom, in which Jeff Daniel’s character Will McAvoy gives us his reasons for why America isn’t the best country in the world anymore, but we could be. In an instance of life imitating art, McAvoy’s rant went viral, both in the show and in real life. Youtube commenters, bloggers, and journalists (both online, on TV, and in print) were discussing the monologue. And, as Chadwick Matlin (the author tasked with writing the recaps of The Newsroom for Vulture) points out, a lot of the discussions asked “which audience is [McAvoy] saying it to? Is it the kids at Northwestern, or is it us, sitting at home, eager for a savior—a Sorkin!—to help us feel superior, help us feel smart.” Some fans were hailing it as the most educated TV show since The West Wing, while some detractors were hailing it as the most liberally bent show since the The West Wing. Throughout the season, Sorkin’s characters (often McAvoy, a Sorkin-surrogate) delivered deliberative speeches on things ranging from privacy, to Osama Bin-Laden, and many other situations in between.
Sorkin’s previous show, The West Wing focused on democratic President Jed Bartlet and his senior staff. Though The West Wing is set in a fictionalized version of our own universe, the Bartlet administration dealt with some real-world issues that were facing the Bush administration. Some critics, like Emily Nussbaum of the The New Yorker, viewed The West Wing as Sorkin’s “...counterprogramming to the Bush Administration,” in which he would use those real world issues to show his viewers what should be done. In this speech from the episode “20 Hours in America," President Barlet delivers a speech about a fictional terrorist attack on American soil. The speech is both epideictic, because it commemorates the victims and places blame on the terrorist, but also deliberative, because it advises us to be strong in the face of what’s to come. What's important about this speech is that it was delivered almost a year after the September 11th attacks. It pays homage to the victims of the attacks, and also reminds us that there is a need for American heroes, people to stand up so that a terrible attack doesn't happen again.
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