All the President's Spin - by Ben Fritz & Bryan Keefer & Brendan Nyhan (Paperback)

About the Book

Just in time for the conventions and the 2004 election, the editors of the popular Web site Spinsanity.org expose what they believe are tactics of deception and media manipulation perpetrated by George W. Bush and his administration.

Book Synopsis

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 facts. Fritz, Keefer, and Nyhan's powerful critique of Bush's record of policy deception explains why the media has failed to hold him accountable and demonstrates the threat these tactics pose to honest political debate.
This is the essential book for every citizen who wants to understand how George W. Bush has misled the nation and why, if left unchallenged, all the President's spin could soon become standard practice -- a devastating development for our democracy.

Review Quotes

Jonathan Chait The New Republic A clinical, dispassionate, and intellectually bulletproof analysis of the ways President Bush has manipulated public opinion. The authors meticulously paint a troubling picture of the way our national debates function. It ought to shame the press corps into mending its ways.

Neal Pollack author of Never Mind the Pollacks A chilling and comprehensive account of how the government has polluted our country with a thick mist of foul propaganda.

Tucker Carlson CNN Politicians talk so much that hardly anyone pays close attention to what they're actually saying. Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer, and Brendan Nyhan do, staying up late to match words with reality. It's a tough job -- imagine the migraines -- but the rest of us can be glad someone's doing it.

About the Author

Ben Fritz is a reporter for the entertainment trade paper Variety. He also edits the satirical website Dateline Hollywood (www.datelinehollywood.com) and was recently named one of the nation's top thirty business journalists under thirty. Originally from New York, Ben graduated from Swarthmore College and served for a year in the AmeriCorps* National Civilian Community Corps. He lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at ben@spinsanity.com

Bryan Keefer is assistant managing editor of Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk (www.campaigndesk.org), which monitors the media's coverage of politics. He has worked at the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union. Bryan lives in New York City, but he left his heart in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was raised. He can be reached at bryan@spinsanity.com

Brendan Nyhan is a graduate student in the department of political science at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. From 2001 to 2003, he managed new projects and later marketing and fundraising for Benetech (www.benetech.org), a Silicon Valley technology nonprofit. Brendan grew up in Mountain View, California, and attended Swarthmore College. In 2000, he served as the Deputy Communications Director for the Bernstein for U.S. Senate campaign in Nevada. In 2003, he received an Award of Distinction in the Paul Mongerson Prize for Investigative Reporting on News Coverage competition. Brendan can be reached at brendan@spinsanity.com.