One of my favorite political sites on the Internet — because they give it to both sides and play fair — is Spinsanity, run by Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer and Brendan Nyhan. In their spirit of utter honesty, I should confess that Ben has become a pal of mine but I was praising his site in my weblog before we ever met. I am only continuing that praise as I recommend a new book by those three folks, All the President's Spin, which is subtitled "George W. Bush, the Media and the Truth." It's a meticulously-researched, non-hysterical examination of statements that have been made by or about the current administration. As you might expect from the title, there are hundreds of examples where the authors quote Bush, Cheney, Powell or someone of that sort, then offer what seems like pretty solid proof that the statement is at least misleading and perhaps utterly wrong.
But this is not exactly a hit book on Bush — though anyone who wants to believe that he and his staff are honorable will probably think as much. There are plenty of places where Ben, Bryan and Brendan correct misstatements and misquotes of what Bush said, or point out the factual inaccuracies of his opponents. The cumulative effect creates a book that, to me, makes a pretty strong argument that no one who is currently front and center in the political world is above mangling the truth, and that the press does a spectacularly poor job of catching them when they do. (Equally appalling are the many cited instances where reporters either misquoted or excerpted a real quote in a way that distorted its meaning.) Since I like the website and agree with the premise of this book, I am happy to give it a glowing recommendation. Hell, I'll even go so far as to post this link via which you can order it from Amazon and — again, making full disclosure — give this site a small commission on the sale. This is a book with more integrity than anyone quoted within its pages.
I must add that it fueled an amazement that I have had for a long time about politics and the media. There's a saying in show business that some flops hurt you and some don't. In the same way, in the game of running for or serving in public office, there are some misstatements that harm and others that never embarrass their speakers. When Bill Clinton said that he'd tried marijuana but "didn't inhale," or when Al Gore said something that could be misinterpreted as "I invented the Internet," those quotes stuck. They went into the public vocabulary and were cited by their opponents not only as lies but as proof that there was something fundamentally, pathologically wrong with the men.
I thought those statements were, at worst, sloppy phrasing, something every public figure is guilty of from time to time. (You all saw Bush the other day saying, "Our enemies…never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." He didn't mean exactly what he said and Gore wasn't making the claim that his foes were able to convince many that he'd made.) I think political figures do lie or deceive, more often that we like to think…but somehow, Clinton and Gore got nailed for more-or-less accurate statements, and a lot of outright fibs went unreported. The Spinsanity book chronicles a lot of them, all more significant and clearly untrue than Gore's supposed "lie" that he was the model for the character in Love Story. Why do some untrue statements hurt and others don't? Beats the heck outta me. Anyway, order All the President's Spin and see if you can figure it out.