This is the first volume to chronicle the story of the evolution of
the symbiotic relationship between the presidential press
secretaries and reporters who covered White House news during the
terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon,
Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush,
Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Author Woody Klein has been both
a reporter (for the Washington Post and the New York World-Telegram
& Sun) and a press secretary himself to New York City Mayor
John V. Lindsay, who ran for president in 1972. The book reveals
how the presidential press secretaries' role has evolved from
old-fashioned public relations into a smooth-working system of
releasing news and responding to reporters' questions at daily
briefings by portraying the president in the best possible light.
Klein ferrets out fresh, anecdotal information and includes
interviews with nationally known personalities—including former
White House press secretaries and notable journalists who have
covered the White House. He brings to life the personalities and
views of every presidential spokesman on how the job has grown in
stature as the press secretaries or spinmeisters have become
high-profile officials. Klein reveals how the tension between
government and the media—normally healthy in any democracy—has
resulted in the manipulation of facts and the release of favorable
official news. It started subtly in the Roosevelt administration
and has been carefully honed with the transformation of the media
in the information and technology revolution; he shows how it has
been refined to the point where it is now recognized for what it
is: slanting or packaging the news in favor of the president to
make it acceptable—even desired—by the public. Perception
quickly becomes reality, and once the facts of a situation have
been accepted by the establishment—politicians and the press
alike—it becomes virtually impossible to change people's minds
about them. The book documents scores of examples of White House
spin by topic rather than chronologically—for example, how
different press secretaries managed the news in wartime, in foreign
policy, in scandals, and in a host of domestic issues such as
education and national disasters. Twenty-three press secretaries
are included. The most notable among them are Steve Early
(Roosevelt), James Hagerty (Eisenhower), Pierre Salinger (Kennedy),
Bill Moyers (Johnson), Ron Ziegler (Nixon), Marlin Fitzwater
(Reagan and G. H. W. Bush), Dee Dee Myers (Clinton), Mike McCurry
(Clinton), Joe Lockhart (Clinton), Ari Fleischer (Bush), Scott
McClellan (Bush), and Tony Snow (Bush).
General
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