Agree Or Disagree?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/winston-churchill-defeats-martin-luther-king-in-battle-of-the-orators-poll-8772720.html

This poll shows that Winston Churchill was the best orator of all time, with Martin Luther King beaten into second place.

/// ComRes asked: "For each of the following, please indicate whether you think they were, or are, more inspiring or less inspiring a speaker than Martin Luther King, or about the same?" The scores show the difference between the percentage saying "more inspiring" and that saying "less inspiring". ///

Rhetoric league

Winston Churchill +28

Martin Luther King 0

JF Kennedy -11

Margaret Thatcher -33

Barack Obama -36

Boris Johnson -62

Tony Blair -71

David Cameron -74

Gordon Brown -79

/// ComRes interviewed 2,001 GB adults online on 14 and 15 August 2013. Data were weighted to be demographically representative ///

Doesn't say much for our last three PMs.

[Gromit]

I don't think I have listened to a full speech by any of them. I have heard the usual snippets of Churchill and I realise they were probably inspiring during the war.

The problem with trying to rate them is difficult because in a lot of cases, we are not the intended audience. Martin Luther King and Barak Obama are not speaking to me.

[Buenchico]

A sample of 2001 people, from just one country at around the same time is unlikely to be much good at finding the greatest orator of all time. I wonder, for example, how many of them have even heard of Cicero?

Further, unless the wording of the question used in the study is extremely clear, people are likely to be biased by the content of the oratory, rather than simply examining a leader's ability to inspire their people. Perhaps that's why one of the 20th century's greatest orators, Adolf Hitler, is missing from the list?

[Brenden]

Agree with Winston Churchill, he certainly pulled this country together during WW2 - wonderful orator.

[whiskeryron]

Chris, hear hear.

WR.

[Brenden]

Buenchio Hitler was a great orator as well - brilliant in fact - like Churchill he pulled his country together - two great orators.

[wolf63]

This guy is a brilliant communicator. I am sure that he could (almost) make cricket sound interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnJQjtvngqA

[Gromit]

I don't think I know one person who has listened to a Martin Luther King speech so they did very well to find 2001 who had.

You don't suppose, like me, that the 2001 hadn't listened to any speeches either, but voted for the personality?

[BlueToffee]

Oooh Woolfie......cricket IS interesting, well, to those of us dedicated to it!

[thatsmethatis]

What a pointless poll????????

[jake-the-peg]

If you look at that list you'll see that the more recent they are the less they scored.

We've passed out of the age where people would sit down and listen to a speech, it's not such an important skill as it used to be (Although Obama's having a good go at resurrecting it)

More important these days is how well you come over on TV

The Nixon/Kennedy syndrome

[FredPuli43]

Surprised if nobody has taken the trouble to read or hear "I have a dream". Churchill is famous, as an orator, for several speeches, Luther King only one.

How does the poll show Churchill was the best orator of all time, AOG? It only does that if the others in the list were, together, the best orators of all time, which is a doubtful premiss, considering that George Brown is listed.

[jim360]

It seems that the poll is missing too many famous orators really to be considered a "greatest of all time" competition. A few who deserve mentions but don't get them include Lloyd George and Joe Chamberlain, who apparently were reckoned in their day to be far better than Churchill. And indeed Hitler was clearly an inspiring speaker, and ought to be included in any list of great orators. But the thing is that, Churchill aside, and some snippets of the others, I haven't listened to all that many speeches, not in full anyway. Blair's speech on leaving Labour is one of the few modern ones I've heard in full, and I don't know what I think of it really.

We don't rely quite so much on long speeches any more, so it's likely that the art is relatively poor these days, not because people are necessarily any worse at public speaking but because they don't have to be. For good or ill, we're in the age of the soundbite.

[Kromovaracun]

I think it's a bit of a pointless poll, and the only MLK speech I've seen is the famous "I have a dream", which I think is a pretty effective and moving piece of oratory. Though having said that I'd probably agree with the poll in that I tend to find the records of Churchill's speeches more moving. For some reason this one is my favourite. I'm not really sure why:



Best orator 'of all time' is difficult to say. We've only been able to record sound for the last century or so, so all the orators before that are lost to is. Personally, I feel Christopher Hitchens was probably one of the best English language orators of the modern day,and probably my personal favourite. I often sit and listen to his debates and the audio transcripts of his books just for the pleasure of hearing him talk.

[dr b]

Why not give a listen? Warning: 17 minutes(!!!) long!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UV1fs8lAbg

[Spoonboy]

Oneiscritus!!

[pixie373]

I've heard fantastic speakers, many of whom aren't even famous. I don't think you could ever name someone as "the greatest orator of all time."

[ichkeria]

I don't think the poll shoes that WC was the greatest orator ever. It shows what its (possibly pointless) intention was - : to grade people's opinions of various speakers relative to Martin Luther King. I don't know if those were the only options but the result is so predictable I'd have thought it hardly worth publishing. How many people alive today were inspired by either Churchill or King?