The recent creation of PunditWire by two School of Communication professors allows politicos to sound off on newsworthy topics on an online forum.
Professors Lenny Steinhorn and Bob Lehrman launched the website Sept. 13 to allow speechwriters across the nation to be heard.
“You have this group of talent that’s had no way to get into the national conversation unless they sort of beg and plead to get in the op-ed pages of a major newspaper,” Steinhorn said.
Initially, Steinhorn came up with the idea of starting an online forum for political speechwriters and then approached his colleague, Lehrman, and asked for his help and partnership.
“His rationale was there are plenty of reporters who write well, and there are plenty of political staffers that have had inside political experience, so here are people who write well and have been on the inside,” Lehrman said.
Since nearly all the contributing writers on PunditWire are former or current speechwriters, PunditWire is not just a blog but also an educated commentary, according to Steinhorn.
“Speechwriters are people who, by the very nature of their craft, have had to marry opinion, argument and knowledge,” Steinhorn said.
The creation of PunditWire was just an idea a year ago, but Steinhorn’s idea has transformed into reality with the help of contributing writers.
Currently, there is a total of 10 writers contributing to the site, such as former President George H.W. Bush’s Director of Speech Writing Chriss Winston and Paul Liben, director of speechwriting for former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, according to PunditWire.
Steinhorn and Lehrman believe the number of contributing writers will increase, so they hired someone to manage the website. They decided to let students apply for this position, offering them both experience and a one-year fellowship.
After looking through applications, Steinhorn and Lehrman chose SOC graduate student Mary Robbins as Web manager and editor.
“I knew they needed somebody to help get it launched to build readership, and it sounded like fun,” Robbins said. “I follow politics, and so it just seemed like a convergence of things that I would be interested in doing.”
Robbins was chosen for this position due to her experience with online writing, as well as managing content. Since PunditWire just launched, her tasks include monitoring comments and posts and general upkeep of the site.
By offering Robbins this graduate fellowship, Steinhorn and Lehrman were able to have AU sponsor PunditWire, allowing the professors to access school technology and assistance for the blog. AU pays for the website, so the University can now promote the AU name to a bigger audience on the blog.
“For every time someone clicks on the site, they’re going to see AU [logo],” Steinhorn said. “That’s great from a reputation-building perspective as well.”
As this new website becomes more well known, Steinhorn hopes it gains a national name.
“I’m hoping it becomes looked at in some ways as the nation’s op-ed page, as a go-to place for people who seek out smart and interesting ideas to help them make sense of our political world,” Steinhorn said.
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