A major theme in Clare Booth Luce's speech to the Women's national press club was criticism. Luce criticises her audience and was able to do so by setting her and them up for it in her introduction. She reminds them of the fact that they invited her to speak, she praises them and uses sensationalist imagery and irony to prove her point.
From the beginning of her speech, Luce already shows her audience that her speech will not be positive. She starts by saying she is "flattered," but then she says the opposite, that she is "less happy than you may think." She backs up her statement by reminding them that they had "invited to throw rocks" and asked her what her opinion on the faults in the American press was. She reframes her invitation as coming to criticize them and "throw rocks." Luce makes her intentions clear and confirms that they are aware they asked for the oncoming criticism.…show more content… So, in order to get their support, Luce praises the crowd of journalists. She compliments their careers and standards of writing. She tells them that their work is "inspiringly good" and "the best" in the world. Her praise of them from an early point in her introduction pleases the audience and makes them more willing to listen.
Luce uses the goal of good journalism as support for her criticism. The goal of good journalism is "to achieve illuminating candor" and "the pursuit of and the effort to state the truth." In other words, to state the plain truth. Luce's approach to her audience, like journalism, is straight and open. She convinces them that what she has to say stands in line with everything they believe and have to say. Therefore, like journalism, Luce can and will criticize her audience to prove her
