When Al Gore had the chutzpah to speak in New Orleans last year toa Marsh client breakfast with over 1,500 attendees, about theimpact of global warming on insurance, I was outraged to learn thathis remarks would be off-limits to the press. I lambasted both theformer vice president as well as his host, for allowing him to getaway with such nonsense. Now, history is about to repeat itself,with CIAB the enabler this time around–not just with one celebrityspeaker, but two!

The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers has booked Al Bore todeliver the keynote address in Las Vegas when its annual meetingopens on Monday. They also have President Bush's chief henchman,Karl Rove, set to be the keynote speaker at their second generalbusiness session on Tuesday.

We have been informed by CIAB that press is only permitted tocover the first five minutes of each speech, and then all commentsare off the record. That means we can report to you theirrespective, lame opening jokes to break the ice, which they havetold so often even they can't bring themselves to laughanymore.

Just like with Marsh last year, we were told by CIAB that thisis out of their control–that the speaker's bureau imposed the pressban as part of its contract.

This excuse is totally bogus. First of all, CIAB–or whicheversponsor is throwing its money away on these useless speeches–ispaying the piper, and should be able to call the tune.

There are also alternatives if speakers are uncooperative. ACORDhad Sam Donaldson as its keynoter last May, and his lively talkabout media coverage of the presidential race was completely on therecord. (Imagine the fit I would have thrown had a journalistbanned press from his speech!) In years past, Colin Powell made theinsurance circuit–I heard him speak at least three times, again allon the record.

These shamelss blowhards are getting paid a small fortune todeliver the same speech all over the country–at least six figureseach. For that kind of bread, you would think the one paying thebills would set the terms and conditions.

I frankly think these celebrity speakers are a total waste oftime and money. Those paying for this song and dance routine wouldbe better off giving all that money to Habitat for Humanity or someother worthy charity, and in their place recruit more high-poweredinsurance industry figures who would speak for free and actuallysay something worthwhile and newsworthy.

But if an association like CIAB insists on paying good money forhas-beens, they should at least insist that the talk be deliveredon their terms–which should include full press coverage.

It's ridiculous for such high-profile people to speak“privately” to a huge group in any case, not withcamera-phone-driven YouTube videos and personal blogsproliferating. Everyone is “press” these days.

Perhaps Rove is press-shy after getting caught outing a CIAoperative to the press. What Gore's problem is with facing themedia, I can't even begin to imagine. In any case, their gag ordersare simply unacceptable.

Next time, folks, if you must spend more than what most peoplemake in a year to convince some “celebrity” to deliver their stockaddress to your group for a lousy 40 minutes, at least insist theynot be ashamed to be quoted by the attending media.

After all, what do these celebrities have to hide, except theirirrelevance?