Watching the VA Tech coverage live on TV, I can’t help but want to vomit peptic ulcer bile all over the face of the president of Tech and the other emissaries as they get up and lifelessly, soulessly read impersonal, professionally prepared statements.
JESUS CHRIST, it sounds so ROBOTIC and POINTLESS and it DOES NOTHING. I’d rather these jackasses get up and just say something natural and from the heart, even if it’s ineloquent and full of starts and stops and stutters - just one HONEST, LEGITIMATE statement would have a THOUSAND TIMES the effect of these prepared bullshit statements.
I didn’t see or hear the speeches in question, but i agree with the sentiment of your OP. I feel the same when some jackass celebrity, caught doing something stupid or offensive, apologizes by reading out a prepared statement in stilted monotone. It just sounds so insincere.
Geez, what are they supposed to say? What can you say? The only honest, legitimate, straight-from-the-heart thing they could say would be, “Oh my fucking god holy SHIT!!”
We expect things like “dignity” from a president of a university, and sobbing, “That fucking bastard may he rot in hell forever!” into the mike just doesn’t do it.
So what do you want from them? Blood?
Not everybody can sparkle when reading a prepared statement after a ghastly tragedy. Lighten up.
No, fuck you. I’m talking about dropping the pretense, dropping the formality, dropping the peparedness of the statement and just getting up there and communicating the same thing in an honest, from-the-heart, off-the-cuff, man-to-man style. Just get up there, drop the bullshit formality, and say,
and so on, instead of reading a stiff, stick-up-the-ass, “professional”, robotic, and emotionless “statement.”
This black woman up there is THE WORST!!!
like a fucking malfunctioning robot programmed for insincerity and emotionlessness.
At which point I’d open a Pit thread saying, “What a bullshit statement! Why is this asshole rattling off meaningless platitudes? What the fuck does ‘we need to pull together’ really mean? What exactly are we pulling? What a douche!”
At a minimum, what I’d expect from them is practice reading the damned thing a few times until they can read it with some semblance of the usual human vocal patterns - you know, normal cadences, emphases and pauses where you’d expect them if someone was just saying it, and so forth.
University presidents are paid big bucks to be the public face of a university. That’s their job. (I think of fundraising as being a large part of being the public face of the university.) This is something they shouldn’t screw up.
I know which woman the OP is talking about, she did sound awfully robotic and almost seemed to be shouting her speech. I can’t pretend to think I know what her sentiments are (the monotone voice and poker face gave no indications), but she is one of the worst public speakers I’ve heard in a long time.
True, her job is not public speaking, but it is her responsibility to at least show a bit of compassion. She did not do that. She said a few kind words, but when they’re delivered in a tone that borders on scolding the words become less effective.
Eh, I still think you guys are being too hard on people who are being asked to cope–publicly–with appalling horror, not to mention the looming spectre of potential litigation, which is a different kind of horror all its ownself. Still think ya need to cut 'em a little slack.
Did you see her speak? If not, you have no idea what we’re talking about. I highly doubt that her demeanor was due to coping, she is probably always rigid. She being Zenobia L. Hikes, vice president of student affairs.
The point I’m trying to make (and I believe the OP is trying to make) is that her tone and delivery was not helpful IMO, and could have even been seen as a string of obligatory platitudes. The statements made by the others ranged from emotional to empowering, they all seemed genuine.
Obviously everyone is entitled to their own method of coping and grieving, but a cold and insensitive tone is not the right one to take when hosting a convocation such as this one.
