Spin Cycle :: essays research papers

SPIN CYCLE&9With so many disparate scandal to his credit and numerous ongoinginvestigations pending, President Clinton has been bombarded by the media in afashion not seen since the last days of the Nixon administration. Despite this uncalled-for attention, Clinton has managed to maintain lofty approval ratings andsuccessfully deflect even the some ardent attacks. How does he do it? Thisquestion is answered in full in Spin Cycle, a backroom look at how news iscreated and packaged in the whiten firm and the methods used to distribute itto the public. In painting a detailed picture of the hand-to-hand combat knownas a press conference, Kurtz shows how the use of controlled leaks, meticulouslyworded briefs, and the outright avoidance of certain questions allows the fairHouse to control the scope and content of the stories that make it to the front page and the nightly network news. As Kurtz makes clear, the president andFirst Lady be convinced that the media are out to get them, while the journalists covering the white House are constantly frustrated at the stonewalling and the need of cooperation they encounter while trying to do their jobs. In the middle is the White House press secretary Mike McCurry, a master at defusing volatile situations and walking the fine line with the press. Though little paranoid and cynical of the media than Clinton, he often finds himself on both ends of ain attacks and vendettas that veer far outside the arena of objective reporting. The anecdotes and carefully hide information that Kurtz has uncovered give this book a brisk pace, on with ample invaluable information that cuts to the core of this age of media overkill.&9Kurtz focuses in the main on White House response to scandal news in 1996and 1997, and he does not purport to cover most other aspects of the kinship between the president and the press. And within the narrow scope of his research, he had whole fragmentary access to important information. For legal an d political reasons, white House aides were probably not inclined to volunteer the whole truth. Whats more, the story is still unfolding. Though he adds nothing to what is known nearly recent happenings in the Oval Office, he does shed light on a subject that remains of considerable importance the techniques used by the Clinton administration to shape the way it is portrayed in the press. It never bad takes up the issue that seems to lie at its core.