英语的使用范围非常广泛。世界上70%以上的邮件是用英文写或用英文写地址的。全世界的广播节目中，有60%是用英语进行的。国际上的资料绝大部分是用英语发表的。这里给大家分享一些关于大学英语演讲稿范文，供大家参考。下面是小编辛苦为大家带来的大学英语演讲稿【精选9篇】，您的肯定与分享是对小编最大的鼓励。
Ladies and gentlemen!
Good evening! I am very glad to stand here and give you a short speech. First, please permit me introduce myself to all of you. My name is … Today my topic is “My University”。 I hope you will like let’s begin.
First, I will talk something about my university. My university, -Henan Polytechnic University has a long and honor history. Our campus is so beautiful and when I stepped on the campus of Our university, seeing the sunshine sprinkling over the teaching buildings, my stage I know, is here!
It was the first time that I went into HPU, I felt he is so young ,so living and kicking, just as we are! It was the first time that I was attracted in class by my teachers, and my English teacher in particularly, who, you know, is just like our old friend, funny, soft , considerate and trying to make us more comfortable! It was the first time that I made friends here, we have a little in common, thus we all head for the same destination, we all make progress every day! it was the first time that I participated in activities here, I was terribly excited, feeling being young is so wonderful!!
Actually， my life in university is substantial. I tried to study harder and took more active part in activities at school to eich my life and myself. There is an old saying "where there is a will, there is a way." I think my dream can come true. Now in the university I mature, and in the university I prepare for the real world. My university, my dream. I believe that I can fly at the height of dream.
HPU ---the first step in my future career!
I enjoy my stay here, and meanwhile, I know, being young, HPU is till developing every second, every minute, every hour, and every day!
HPU---inspires me to pursue my dream!
Now, standing here, expressing my emotions for my university, I feel so proud of you! I hope as much as I believe, my university--HPU, the cool eagle, will fly higher and higher! In the end, thank all of you for listening to my speech. That’s all. Thank you again.
Should smoking be banned?
Different people have different opinions. Somesmokers think smoking is a kind of enjoyment, andthey could live without food but will die withoutsmoking. Also they said they have freedom ofsmoking and it has nothingto do with others.However a lot of non-smokers don't agree. In theiropinion, smoking is harmful to not onlysmokersthemselves but also public health especially thewoman and children. Therefore, many coutries have worked out lots to forbid smoking in publicplaces, such as cinemas, hospitals, stations etc. Nowadays, smokersmake up one quarter of theworld's population. If the problem of smoking is not dealt with seriously, human health will bein danger. So smoking should be banned in no time.
My College---My New Life
New life begins! I've been expecting this moment for a long time.Finally,I become a college student .
All good things must come to an end ! I am now apart from my family members and many good friends.I am awared that I will have to do everything on my own .
Being responsible is the exact thing that I am supposed to think about! I'm now dealing something responsibly with my new rommates.I enjoy being together with them,they just like my good friends in high school,being kind and thoughtful !
My college is a place for a new beginning ,I'm sure I'm taking a new life ,everything here is full of challenge,quite different from things in high school,teachers are not going to tell you exactly what you are going to do ,you will have to make your own decisions.
So far,I'm geting along so well with people aroud me ,college provides me with chances and challenge,I'm going to make a difference to my life!And I have every confidence on myself.I will still have to move on......
Man’s life is a process of growing up
Man’s life is a process of growing up, actually I’m standing here is a growth. If a person’s life must constituted by various choices, then I grow up along with these choices. Once I hope I can study in a college in future, however that’s passed, as you know I come here, now I wonder what the future holds for ( what will happen to) me.
When I come to this school, I told to myself: this my near future, all starts here. Following I will learn to become a man, a integrated man, who has a fine body, can take on important task, has independent thought, an open mind, intensive thought, has the ability to judge right and wrong, has a perfect job.
Once my teacher said :” you are not sewing, you are stylist; never forget which you should lay out to people is your thought, not craft.” I will put my personality with my interest and ability into my study, during these process I will combine learning with doing. If I can achieve this “future”, I think that I really grow up. And I deeply believe kindred, good-fellowship and love will perfection and happy in the future.
How to say future? Maybe it’s a nice wish. Lets make up our minds, stick to it and surely well enjoy our life.
thank you.
thank you, president chen, chairmen ren, vice president chi, vice minister wei.
we are delighted to be here today with a very large american delegation, including the first lady and our daughter, who is a student at stanford, one of the schools with which beijing university has a relationship.
we have six members of the united states congress; the secretary of state; secretary of commerce; the secretary of agriculture; the chairman of our council of economic advisors; senator sasser, our ambassador; the national security advisor and my chief of staff, among others.
i say that to illustrate the importance that the united states places on our relationship with china.
i would like to begin by congratulating all of you, the students, the faculty, the administrators, on celebrating the centennial year of your university.
gongxi, beida.
(applause.)
as im sure all of you know, this campus was once home to yenching university which was founded by american missionaries.
many of its wonderful buildings were designed by an american architect.
thousands of americans students and professors have come here to study and teach.
we feel a special kinship with you.
i am, however, grateful that this day is different in one important respect from another important occasion 79 years ago.
in june of 1919, the first president of yenching university, john leighton stuart, was set to deliver the very first commencement address on these very grounds.
at the appointed hour, he appeared, but no students appeared.
they were all out leading the may 4th movement for chinas political and cultural renewal.
when i read this, i hoped that when i walked into the auditorium today, someone would be sitting here.
and i thank you for being here, very much.
(applause.)
over the last 100 years, this university has grown to more than 20,000 students.
your graduates are spread throughout china and around the world.
you have built the largest university library in all of asia.
last year, 20 percent of your graduates went abroad to study, including half of your math and science majors.
and in this anniversary year, more than a million people in china, asia, and beyond have logged on to your web site.
at the dawn of a new century, this university is leading china into the future.
i come here today to talk to you, the next generation of chinas leaders, about the critical importance to your future of building a strong partnership between china and the united states.
the american people deeply admire china for its thousands of years of contributions to culture and religion, to philosophy and the arts, to science and technology.
we remember well our strong partnership in world war ii.
now we see china at a moment in history when your glorious past is matched by your present sweeping transformation and the even greater promise of your future.
just three decades ago, china was virtually shut off from the world.
now, china is a member of more than 1,000 international organizations -- enterprises that affect everything from air travel to agricultural development.
you have opened your nation to trade and investment on a large scale.
today, 40,000 young chinese study in the united states, with hundreds of thousands more learning in asia, africa, europe, and latin america.
your social and economic transformation has been even more remarkable, moving from a closed command economic system to a driving, increasingly market-based and driven economy, generating two decades of unprecedented growth, giving people greater freedom to travel within and outside china, to vote in village elections, to own a home, choose a job, attend a better school.
as a result you have lifted literally hundreds of millions of people from poverty.
per capita income has more than doubled in the last decade.
most chinese people are leading lives they could not have imagined just 20 years ago.
of course, these changes have also brought disruptions in settled patterns of life and work, and have imposed enormous strains on your environment.
once every urban chinese was guaranteed employment in a state enterprise.
now you must compete in a job market.
once a chinese worker had only to meet the demands of a central planner in beijing.
now the global economy means all must match the quality and creativity of the rest of the world.
for those who lack the right training and skills and support, this new world can be daunting.
in the short-term, good, hardworking people -- some, at least will find themselves unemployed.
and, as all of you can see, there have been enormous environmental and economic and health care costs to the development pattern and the energy use pattern of the last 20 years -- from air pollution to deforestation to acid rain and water shortage.
Hold Fast To Your Dreams
I have a dream today。
I have a dream that one day every vally shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight,and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
Wow, what a dream it has been for Martin Luther King. But the changing world seems telling me that people gradually get their dreams lost somehow in the process of growing up, and sometimes I personally find myself saying goodbye unconsciously to those distant childhood dreams.
However, we meed dreams. They nourish our spirit; they represent possibility even when we are dragged down by reality. They keep us going. Most successful people are dreamers as well as ordinary people who are not afraid to think big and dare to be great. When we were little kids, we all dreamed of doing something big and splashy, something significant. Now what we need to do is to maintain them,refresh them and turn them into reality. However,the toughest part is that we often have no ideas how to translate these dreams into actions.
Well, just start with concrete objectives and stick to it . Don’t let the nameless fear confuse the eye and confound our strong belief of future. Through our talents, through our wits, through our endurance and through our creativity,we will make it.[由整理]
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow. So my dear friends,think of your old and maybe dead dreams. Whatever it is,pick it up and make it alive from today.
译文
抓牢你的梦想
我这天有一个梦想。
我梦想有一天，幽谷上升，高山下降，崎岖之地变平原，曲折之路成坦途。圣光展露，满照人间。
这对马丁路德金是怎样的一个梦想啊。但是这个变化着的世界似乎在告诉我，在成长的过程中，人们却不知不觉把他们的梦想弄丢了，而我自我也有时会觉得在告别很多童年的梦。
然而，我们是需要梦想的。梦想滋养我们的灵魂，梦想代表着我们被现实拉垮时依然具有的期望。它鼓励我们不断前进。大多数成功人士都是梦想家，同时也是普通人，只是他们敢于梦想敢于成就伟大。当我们还是孩子的时候，我们都梦想过做。
做一番大事业，此刻应当做的就是保存好那些梦想，再度恢复它们，并将它们实现。但是最难的是我们通常不明白怎样付诸实施。那么，就从最具体的目标开始，坚持去做吧。不要让那些莫名的恐惧迷惑了我们的双眼，影响了我们对未来的信念。用我们的天资和智慧，用我们的耐力和创造力，我们必须会实现梦想。
抓牢你的梦想，因为如果梦想死亡，生活就成了一只折断翅膀的鸟再也不能飞翔。抓牢你的梦想，因为如果失去梦想，生命就成了一块覆盖着冰雪的贫瘠的冻土。亲爱的朋友们，想想那些过去的或已经死去的梦想吧。不管是什么，重新将它捡起，并从这天开始让它重生。
Good afternoon everyone. Thanksgiving is the fulcrum of learning, is a wonderful feeling, is grateful to everyone and everything in the world for all their help. Thanksgiving is a fine tradition of our nation, is a person of integrity at least moral character.
Thanksgiving is the key to return. Return is the feeding, training, instruction, guidance, help, support oneself, be grateful, and through its own 10 times, 100 times the pay, and repay them with practical action.
Then, as a student, how to practise Thanksgiving?
First of all ，we should thank our parents. Everyones life is a
continuation of the blood of the parents, the parents give us love, let us enjoy affection and happiness, therefore, we would like to thank our parents.
Secondly, we should thank nature. Nature is the basis for all living. The life activity of human cannot do without it, our basic necessities of life are derived from nature, therefore, we should be thankful to nature.
Thirdly, we should thank our teachers. Teachers are the leaders of our growth, are our friends. The teachers respect, understand and care for us, teach by precept and example, let us benefit for life. The teacher paid with
blood and sweat for us, we should be grateful for the teacher.
Fourthly, we should thank our fellows. Students are our fellows. The students encourage each other, help each other, overcome difficulties and setbacks, share success and happiness of learning. We should be grateful for the students we accompanied every day.
Fifthly, we should thank our school. The school provides a good study environment for us. School is the place that we exercise, a stage to display our talent, we should be thankful to schools.
Lastly, we should thank our motherland 。The motherland is our roots, our source. No homeland, we do not have the habitat ；no motherland, we will be no human dignity; no homeland, we have not all! We should be thankful to our motherland.
one student is just like a flower
my dear mr. and misses, my fellows schoolmates,
good morning! as you know and see, it is a sunny bump harvest season. in the city, in our school campus, everywhere is surrounded with roses which we together planted 4 years ago. today may these roses and our friendship as well be together and comfort our excited hearts!
it was four years ago that everyone of us came from every part of china and formed a new collective. as we are young, it’s very easy for us to communicate. it was in the past four years that we were ambitious. it was in the past four years that we worried. it was in the past four years that we were content. it was in the past four years that we were vexed. it was in the past four years that we were friendly and lonely ... and it was in the past fours that we studied, lived and respected each other with genuine and with our ambitions. nothing in the world is more significant than we miss all of these.
we miss you─teachers who are tireless in teaching; we will keep your gestures and your white hairs in our hearts deeply; we will miss the quietness with the lights at night in the classroom; we will miss the race and exercise on the playground; we will miss even the crowds in the dining hall and the quarrel on the beds; we will still miss every green piece and every piece of waste paper flying like flakes in the air ... however, today we will leave nothing but the first rose with our alma mater and our teachers which is entrusted with our love and respect.
4 years seems very long but 4 years seems very short. from now on, we all will go into the society. the society is broad and wide for us. we will shoulder heavy responsibilities; we will work diligently; and we will expect to be informed of good news from one another. now, i beg you all to cherish the occasion; to remember the names, the status, appearance and the character of the person around you. now let’s be hand in hand together; let’s present the rose to each other. may the rose carry our appreciation and blessing! we are very closely linked no matter what the world may be. may the fresh rose in our hands keep its fragrants!
thank you all again!
学友们：
大家都瞧见了，这是一个阳光灿烂的收获季节。在这座城市，在我们的校园，到处都是玫瑰朵朵，这是4年前我们共同栽培的。今天，就让鲜花和友情聚拢，安抚我们激动不已的心吧！
4年前，大家从天南海北来到这里，组成了一个新的集体。年轻的心是最容易相通的，尽管4年中有追求有失落，有得意有烦恼，有欢乐有忧虑，有友爱有孤寂。但我们都曾怀着真诚而美好的初衷去学习、生活、相爱，没有什么比这些更有意义，更令我们怀念。
我 们怀念每一位诲人不倦的老师，你们的手势或白发会刻在我们的记忆中；怀念教室里的静夜苦读，运动场上的奔跑跳跃，甚至食堂里的拥挤和高低床上的争论； 怀念每一块绿地和每一片风中飘零的废纸。今天，我们没有更好的礼物留下，这第一朵玫瑰，就献给我们的母校和老师，她寄托着大家的热爱和敬意！
4 年很久，4年也很匆匆。以后的日子，大家又要飞，天高地阔，任重道远，我们将在躬身的劳作中和奉献中等候着彼此的好消息。现在，请珍惜和永远记住这一 时刻，记住你左边和右边的任何一个人吧，记住他（她）们的姓名、仪表和特点，请让我们彼此握手，彼此赠佩一朵玫瑰，让她表达我们的感谢和祝福。不管地老天 荒，我们彼此息息相关，我们的手指上永远保留着赠人鲜花的芳香！
谢谢大家！
as everyone knows,english is very important today.it has been used everywhere in the world.it has become the most common language on internet and for international trade. if we can speak english well,we will have more chance to succeed.because more and more people have taken notice of it,the number of the people who go to learn english has increased at a high speed.
but for myself,i learn english not only because of its importance and its usefulness,but also because of my love for it.when i learn english, i can feel a different way of thinking which gives me more room to touch the world.when i read english novels,i can feel the pleasure from the book which is different from reading the translation.when i speak english, i can feel the confident from my words.when i write english,i can see the beauty which is not the same as our chinese...
i love english,it gives me a colorful dream.i hope i can travel around the world one day. with my good english, i can make friends with many people from different contries.i can see many places of great intrests.i dream that i can go to london,because it is the birth place of english.
i also want to use my good english to introduce our great places to the english spoken people,i hope that they can love our country like us.
i know, rome was not built in a day. i believe that after continuous hard study, one day i can speak english very well.
if you want to be loved, you should learn to love and be lovable. so i believe as i love english everyday , it will love me too.
i am sure that i will realize my dream one day!
thank you!
we are the world ,we are the future
someone said “we are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book, whose pages are infinite”。 i don’t know who wrote these words, but i’ve always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want it to be. we are all in the position of the farmers. if we plant a good seed ,we reap a good harvest. if we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.
we are young. “how to spend the youth?” it is a meaningful question. to answer it, first i have to ask “what do you understand by the word youth?” youth is not a time of life, it’s a state of mind. it’s not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips or supple knees. it’s the matter of the will. it’s the freshness of the deep spring of life.
a poet said “to see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour. several days ago, i had a chance to listen to a lecture. i learnt a lot there. i’d like to share it with all of you. let’s show our right palms. we can see three lines that show how our love.career and life is. i have a short line of life. what about yours? i wondered whether we could see our future in this way. well, let’s make a fist. where is our future? where is our love, career, and life? tell me.yeah, it is in our hands. it is held in ourselves.
we all want the future to be better than the past. but the future can go better itself.don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened. from the past, we’ve learnt that the life is tough, but we are tougher. we’ve learnt that we can’t choose how we feel, but we can choose what about it. failure doesn’t mean you don’t have it, it does mean you should do it in a different way. failure doesn’t mean you should give up, it does mean you must try harder.
as what i said at the beginning, “we are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book, whose pages are infinite”。 the past has gone. nothing we do will change it. but the future is in front of us. believe that what we give to the world, the world will give to us. and from today on, let’s be the owners of ourselves, and speak out “we are the world, we are the future.”
世界是我们的，未来是我们的
一些人说“我们正在读一本无穷的书中的'第一章的第一节。”我不知道谁写了这些话，但是我一直很喜欢它，因为它提醒了我，我们能够创造我们想要的未来。
我们都是农夫。如果我们播下好的种子，我们将会丰收。如果我们的种子很差，有很多草籽，收割的将是无用的庄稼。如果我们什么也不播种，什么收获也没有。
我们是年轻的。“怎样度过青春？”这是个有意义的问题。为了去回答它，我首先要问“从青春这个词中你能理解到什么？” 青春不是人生的一个时期，而是精神的一种状态。青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，。青春是生命的深泉在涌流。
一 位诗人说“从一粒沙看世界，从一朵花看天堂，把无限放在你的手掌，永恒在一刹那里收藏”。几天前，我有了一个听讲座的机会，从中我学到了很多东西。现在， 我想把这些与大家共享。让我们伸出右手，我们可以看到手掌中的展示我们的爱，事业和生活的三条线。我在生活方面这条线很短，那你们的呢？我想知道我们是否 可以用这种办法去看我们的未来。好的，让我们一起握拳。我们的未来在哪儿？我们的爱、事业和生活在哪儿？告诉我！是的，它们就在我们的手中。它们被我们自 己掌握着。
我们所有人都希望未来能比过去更美好，但是未来能自己变得更好。不要因为结束而哭泣，微笑吧，为你的曾经拥有。从过去来看，生 活是艰苦的，但我们是更坚强。我们知道我们不能选择感觉，但是我们能选择和它相关的东西。失败并不意味着你不拥有成功，它只意味着你应该用另一种方式去做 这件事。失败并不意味着你应该放弃，只意味着你应该更加努力。
正如我在前面所说的“我们正在读一本无穷的书中的第一章的第一节。”过去的已经过去，无论我们无力改变，但是未来却在我们前方。相信“我们给了世界什么，世界也将给我们”。并且从今天起，让我们一起做我们自己的主人，一起大声说出“世界是我们的，未来是我们的。”
I think it's obvious from the cameras here that I didn't come to discuss the ban on cyclamates or DDT. I have a subject which I think if of great importance to the American people. Tonight I want to discuss the importance of the television news medium to the American people. No nation depends more on the intelligent judgment of its citizens. No medium has a more profound influence over public opinion. Nowhere in our system are there fewer checks on vast power. So, nowhere should there be more conscientious responsibility exercised than by the news media. The question is, "Are we demanding enough of our television news presentations?" "And are the men of this medium demanding enough of themselves?"
Monday night a week ago, President Nixon delivered the most important address of his Administration, one of the most important of our decade. His subject was Vietnam. My hope, as his at that time, was to rally the American people to see the conflict through to a lasting and just peace in the Pacific. For 32 minutes, he reasoned with a nation that has suffered almost a third of a million casualties in the longest war in its history.
When the President completed his address -- an address, incidentally, that he spent weeks in the preparation of -- his words and policies were subjected to instant analysis and querulous criticism. The audience of 70 million Americans gathered to hear the President of the United States was inherited by a small band of network commentators and self-appointed analysts, the majority of whom expressed in one way or another their hostility to what he had to say.
It was obvious that their minds were made up in advance. Those who recall the fumbling and groping that followed President Johnson’s dramatic disclosure of his intention not to seek another term have seen these men in a genuine state of nonpreparedness. This was not it.
One commentator twice contradicted the President’s statement about the exchange of correspondence with Ho Chi Minh. Another challenged the President’s abilities as a politician. A third asserted that the President was following a Pentagon line. Others, by the expressions on their faces, the tone of their questions, and the sarcasm of their responses, made clear their sharp disapproval.
To guarantee in advance that the President’s plea for national unity would be challenged, one network trotted out Averell Harriman for the occasion. Throughout the President's address, he waited in the wings. When the President concluded, Mr. Harriman recited perfectly. He attacked the Thieu Government as unrepresentative; he criticized the President’s speech for various deficiencies; he twice issued a call to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to debate Vietnam once again; he stated his belief that the Vietcong or North Vietnamese did not really want military take-over of South Vietnam; and he told a little anecdote about a “very, very responsible” fellow he had met in the North Vietnamese delegation.
All in all, Mr. Harrison offered a broad range of gratuitous advice challenging and contradicting the policies outlined by the President of the United States. Where the President had issued a call for unity, Mr. Harriman was encouraging the country not to listen to him.
A word about Mr. Harriman. For 10 months he was America’s chief negotiator at the Paris peace talks -- a period in which the United States swapped some of the greatest military concessions in the history of warfare for an enemy agreement on the shape of the bargaining table. Like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, Mr. Harriman seems to be under some heavy compulsion to justify his failures to anyone who will listen. And the networks have shown themselves willing to give him all the air time he desires.
Now every American has a right to disagree with the President of the United States and to express publicly that disagreement. But the President of the United States has a right to communicate directly with the people who elected him, and the people of this country have the right to make up their own minds and form their own opinions about a Presidential address without having a President’s words and thoughts characterized through the prejudices of hostile critics before they can even be digested.
When Winston Churchill rallied public opinion to stay the course against Hitler’s Germany, he didn’t have to contend with a gaggle of commentators raising doubts about whether he was reading public opinion right, or whether Britain had the stamina to see the war through. When President Kennedy rallied the nation in the Cuban missile crisis, his address to the people was not chewed over by a roundtable of critics who disparaged the course of action he’d asked America to follow.
The purpose of my remarks tonight is to focus your attention on this little group of men who not only enjoy a right of instant rebuttal to every Presidential address, but, more importantly, wield a free hand in selecting, presenting, and interpreting the great issues in our nation. First, let’s define that power.
At least 40 million Americans every night, it’s estimated, watch the network news. Seven million of them view A.B.C., the remainder being divided between N.B.C. and C.B.S. According to Harris polls and other studies, for millions of Americans the networks are the sole source of national and world news. In Will Roger’s observation, what you knew was what you read in the newspaper. Today for growing millions of Americans, it’s what they see and hear on their television sets.
Now how is this network news determined? A small group of men, numbering perhaps no more than a dozen anchormen, commentators, and executive producers, settle upon the 20 minutes or so of film and commentary that’s to reach the public. This selection is made from the 90 to 180 minutes that may be available. Their powers of choice are broad.
They decide what 40 to 50 million Americans will learn of the day’s events in the nation and in the world. We cannot measure this power and influence by the traditional democratic standards, for these men can create national issues overnight. They can make or break by their coverage and commentary a moratorium on the war. They can elevate men from obscurity to national prominence within a week. They can reward some politicians with national exposure and ignore others.
For millions of Americans the network reporter who covers a continuing issue -- like the ABM or civil rights -- becomes, in effect, the presiding judge in a national trial by jury.
It must be recognized that the networks have made important contributions to the national knowledge -- through news, documentaries, and specials. They have often used their power constructively and creatively to awaken the public conscience to critical problems. The networks made hunger and black lung disease national issues overnight. The TV networks have done what no other medium could have done in terms of dramatizing the horrors of war. The networks have tackled our most difficult social problems with a directness and an immediacy that’s the gift of their medium. They focus the nation’s attention on its environmental abuses -- on pollution in the Great Lakes and the threatened ecology of the Everglades. But it was also the networks that elevated Stokely Carmichael and George Lincoln Rockwell from obscurity to national prominence.
Nor is their power confined to the substantive. A raised eyebrow, an inflection of the voice, a caustic remark dropped in the middle of a broadcast can raise doubts in a million minds about the veracity of a public official or the wisdom of a Government policy. One Federal Communications Commissioner considers the powers of the networks equal to that of local, state, and Federal Governments all combined. Certainly it represents a concentration of power over American public opinion unknown in history.
Now what do Americans know of the men who wield this power? Of the men who produce and direct the network news, the nation knows practically nothing. Of the commentators, most Americans know little other than that they reflect an urbane and assured presence seemingly well-informed on every important matter. We do know that to a man these commentators and producers live and work in the geographical and intellectual confines of Washington, D.C., or New York City, the latter of which James Reston terms the most unrepresentative community in the entire United States.
Both communities bask in their own provincialism, their own parochialism.
We can deduce that these men read the same newspapers. They draw their political and social views from the same sources. Worse, they talk constantly to one another, thereby providing artificial reinforcement to their shared viewpoints. Do they allow their biases to influence the selection and presentation of the news? David Brinkley states objectivity is impossible to normal human behavior. Rather, he says, we should strive for fairness.
Another anchorman on a network news show contends, and I quote: “You can’t expunge all your private convictions just because you sit in a seat like this and a camera starts to stare at you. I think your program has to reflect what your basic feelings are. I’ll plead guilty to that.”
Less than a week before the 1968 election, this same commentator charged that President Nixon’s campaign commitments were no more durable than campaign balloons. He claimed that, were it not for the fear of hostile reaction, Richard Nixon would be giving into, and I quote him exactly, “his natural instinct to smash the enemy with a club or go after him with a meat axe.”
Had this slander been made by one political candidate about another, it would have been dismissed by most commentators as a partisan attack. But this attack emanated from the privileged sanctuary of a network studio and therefore had the apparent dignity of an objective statement. The American people would rightly not tolerate this concentration of power in Government. Is it not fair and relevant to question its concentration in the hands of a tiny, enclosed fraternity of privileged men elected by no one and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by Government?
The views of the majority of this fraternity do not -- and I repeat, not -- represent the views of America. That is why such a great gulf existed between how the nation received the President’s address and how the networks reviewed it. Not only did the country receive the President’s speech more warmly than the networks, but so also did the Congress of the United States.
Yesterday, the President was notified that 300 individual Congressmen and 50 Senators of both parties had endorsed his efforts for peace. As with other American institutions, perhaps it is time that the networks were made more responsive to the views of the nation and more responsible to the people they serve.