Obama's Back-To-School Speech Comparative Analysis Essay

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Other minor information was also included in the article. It reported that historically, there were similar initiatives done by former U.S. presidents, stating that Obama's school speech was not an original endeavor, and has actually been done by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. In addition, the news article also focused its attention on the students' (and public's) reaction on Obama's request to students to draft letters stating "what they can do to help the President." Despite criticism about this request for draft letters from students, the report did not disclose the reasons why Obama's 'methodology' was criticized.

NY Daily News, meanwhile, centered on one view point only, and this was about author Michael Daly's opinion on Obama's school speech, an event which he termed as an opportunity, supposedly, of students to witness the president's "hard-earned wisdom from the man who proved anyone really can grow up to be President." Daly went on to discuss, point per point, how he agreed with Obama's points and in effect, criticized the observations and opinions of the detractors of Obama's school speech. He argued that Obama's speech did not "endanger" the students, and he merely reflected the state of affairs that is happening to students in America today. And for Daly, it is critical that parents and school administrators encourage students to listen to Obama's school speech, mainly because they need to hear the president's 'wisdom' on education and responsibility.Secondarily, parents and school administrators' support is critical because students are actually not expected to tune in and listen voluntarily to a speech from a TV, and they should aid the students and ensure that they will indeed listen to the president's take on their welfare and the quality of education students are getting now.

The articles' differences do not only stem from the viewpoints it reported; more specifically, CNN delivered a harder take on the news, presenting the facts alone, albeit an incomplete one (since it did not include the reasons why the draft letters assignment was heavily criticized). NY Daily News, while it presented a solid argument for Obama's school speech, it centered more on the speech's content and none of the public views that CNN managed to collate and report.

References

Daly, M. (September 8, 2009). "Our kids need President Obama's wisdom." New York Daily News website. Available at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/09/08/2009-09-08_our_kids_need_president_obamas_wisdom.html.

"Obama urges students to work hard, stay in school." (September 8, 2009). Cable News Network (CNN) Website. Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/08/obama.school.speech/index.html......