All the President's Spin: George W. Bush, the Media, and the Truth

by Ben Fritz, Brendan Nyhan, Bryan Keefer

Book Overview

All the President's Spin, the first book from the editors of the acclaimed nonpartisan website Spinsanity, unmasks the tactics of deception and media manipulation that George W. Bush has used to sell his agenda to the American people.

From his campaigns for tax cuts to the debate over war in Iraq, President Bush has employed an unprecedented onslaught of half-truths and strategically ambiguous language to twist and distort the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743262514
• ISBN13: 9780743262514
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

This books is a look at how future generations will see us.

I thought this book was very interesting and insightful. Being in Marketing myself I see how politicians are using proven marketing techniques to promote their cause. It's fascinating to see how effective it has become in this age of sound bites and quick empty news stories. This book brings this all together and exposes it for what it is, a P.R. strategy that manipulates facts but still falling short of all out lying. What makes this book so timely is the current scandal with the Swift Vote For Truth ads. Once you read this book you'll look at why those ads are running and understand why and how they are effective. You are shown how it's not about the facts, but how much you can twist the facts to support your claims without lying. This book is more critical of the media and how they report these stories than any specific politician. The writers do a great job showing examples of how this has been used though out the past administrations and how it has been honed to the crafted tool we see everyday on cable and network TV. I can understand that there are those who think this is an anti-Bush book, but I didn't see any lies on behalf on the writers, I see well researched facts that support their views. It becomes clear that politicians understand that this is how politics work and use it to their advantage. We the people are only now starting to see how we are manipulated by both the press and the politician. I can see in the future a marketing or pubic relations class on how these techniques controlled the world and how they used it. This book is simply talking about what both sides have discovered and are using. They simply point out that the Bush administration is the best and most effective at it. Don't knock the messengers for saying how it is, if anything, you can learn and understand how the media and politicians are controlling this country. I can guarantee that once you read this book you will never watch the news the same again.

Finally, the unbiased, non-partisan account we've needed

This is the definitive book of the year to counter political propaganda, equivocation and dishonesty. The authors run the definitive anti-spin, non-partisan website that is growing in popularity and is long overdue as a source of truth in today's ridiculously self-serving political arena. To know the source of this book (see spinsanity.com) is to appreciate the merciless and noble pursuit of truth. No person nor his ideology is spared critisism. From Bush, O'reilly and Hannity on the far right to Moore on the far left, half-truths, out-right lies and distortions are exposed, explained and corrected. This book is a continuation of this pursuit of truth regardless of party affiliation or ideology. Unlike many other Anti-Bush books, this book is not biased and has no partisan agenda. Indeed the book even goes after Kerry to let readers know what the real message is: Politicans twist and select facts to promote a cause and counter an opposing one. Unfortunately for Bush, he has inadvertently set himself up as a prime target. The book goes after the Bush lies without embellishing or exaggerating and does likewise with Kerry in so far as is possible at this point. Personally, I hope this book helps to further promote truth in politics, to encourage partisan readers to re-elvaluate their blind loyalty and most of all, to push the general public to DEMAND better information from candidates and the general media which, as the book points out, is a guilty party in aiding and abetting through sheer laziness and profit potential thru sensationalism. This book is an invitation to the real no spin zone and it isn't pretty. Blind partisan fanatics would do well to learn the reality behind the rhetoric which drives their blind support.

A sophisticated analysis of a pressing problem

With considerable intelligence, the Spinsanity.org resident writers Fritz, Keefer, and Nyhan take on the Bush administration and the increasing use of spin in political discourse. While other books have accused the administration of dishonest rhetoric in its selling of the 2000 campaign, the tax cut, the environment, and the Iraqi war, none that I am aware of are so well-researched, well-balanced (they note that the Kerry campaign has adopted many of the current administration's tactics), or are so aware of the dangers of the decline of political discourse in America. They trace the growth of this phenomenon, but also realize that none of Bush's "predecessors engaged in such a nonstop barrage of PR-driven policy deception. In less than four years Bush has redifined the way in which presidents sell their policies to the public" (237), and they demonstrate Bush's "willingess to engage in day-to-day dishonesty on nearly every major issue he has addressed" (237). At least as important, the authors take the media to task for their unwillingess to confront the administration with its spin, saying that while journalists "are eager to highlight political conflict or personal scandal, they have generally failed to fact-check the everyday dishonesty that this White House has made standard operating procedure" (239). The result of this negligence is an environment where good citizenship is difficult--if not impossible--because the public is so "poorly informed," "they can't realistically make informed judgments" (240). The authors are not without hope, although solution they offer is a considerable challenge: "to be skeptical, oppose dishonesty in all its forms, and support those who hold political figures accountable" (255). While I would hardly call the book optimistic, it does suggest ways in which average Americans can improve the situation. I highly recommend that Americans interested in getting informed read this book.

Please Read This Book Before November 2!!

Everybody, average voters and journalists alike, MUST read this book! Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer and Brendan Nyhan, of Spinsanity.org, provide a valuable service in scutinizing the tactics that the Bush administration and their media machine have been using to mislead the American public, taking dishonesty to a new level. The authors, who scrupulously avoid any partisan rhetoric in their argumentation, describe in detail the tactics that the Bush team has used, the origins of these tactics, and the spurious claims that they have been used to advance. The administrations greatest hits on the truth are all there, from how they sold their tax cuts to how they sold Iraq to how they questioned the patriotism of their critics. But most importantly, the authors show how this administration's PR team has exploited the weaknesses of our national political media. These guys point out how the President and his team frame the debate by relentlessly staying on message, repeating the same talking points over and over again. To the best of my knowledge, the only other "news" organization to make an issue of this tactic is Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." That alone speaks volumes about the state of the media in America today and how the Bush team has exploited it. This book is well written and quite accessible. A real page turner; each chapter left me wanting to know more. This book is essential reading.

A fair, informative book! Propagandists Beware!

This book coldly and logically put what I have felt and suspected of our gov't and media for some time into an undeniable limelight. This book reveals the new methods used on the media by PR centric Politicians to "Spin" issues till unrecognizable, undebateable non-issues. Sparing their readers from Michael Moore or Ann Coulter styled rhetoric, Ben Frtz, Bryan Keefer, and Brendan Nyhan cut to the core of what may be one of the largest threats to an informed democracy. This is a book every Poli Sci, PR, and communications major should read!