Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine

by Howard Kurtz

Bill Clinton is the most investigated president since Richard Nixon—facing inquiries into Whitewater, campaign fundraising abuses, and sexual misconduct—and yet he began 1998 with approval ratings as high as those of Ronald Reagan. But the new year has brought a barrage of new allegations, and the president and his advisers face once again the challenge of spinning the news to their advantage, a challenge they have mastered many times before.

In Spin Cycle, award-winning Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz reveals the inside workings of Clinton's well-oiled propaganda machine—arguably the most successful team of White House spin doctors in history. He pulls back the curtain on events and tactics that the administration would prefer to keep hidden, including:



A tense, almost paranoid White house atmosphere in which the spinmeisters do not question the president about the various scandals because they don't want to learn information they might have to reveal to prosecutors or the press.


Bill Clinton's success in reaping favorable publicity by secretly courting selected reporters and columnists in off-the-record White House Meetings.




Spin Cycle is an all-too-human drama in which political operatives wrestle with their consciences as they struggle to protect the boss. As the scandal drums beat louder and louder, Kurtz tells what it takes for the president and his people to survive, and what happens to the truth along the way.

352 pages, Audiobook

First published May 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mike Dirksen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a good book, and I dont understand why no one else has yet reviewed it. I could not personally help being impressed by how positively I remember this bygone era when people were proud of their nation and their government ( and especially their President). Anyway, the book discusses, at length, how the Clinton White House press core were able to intimidate, deceive, and even control the press representatives from all of the major print, radio, and tv news organizations, and put out only the information that made the administration look good. The book follows each press event (such as campaign finance allegations, the Whitewater scandal, and alleged affairs both the President and First Lady were alleged to be involved with) in chronological order, and it is also as good of a history of that administration as you are likely to find. This book is very readable and interesting, and you, like myself, might find it hard to be all that shocked or offended by all that is alleged here.