Customer Reviews

Call the Briefing!

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Fitzwater's book is perhaps one of the finest insiders views of the White House and the White House press corps to ever be published.
Fitzwater details the inner workings of the Reagan White House like none other, including the scandals and how they did not affect the inside of the White House regardless of the pressure from the media. His admiration for Ronald Reagan is palpable in this book, however he's not as favorable to George Bush. While it's clear he personally likes Bush, it's also clear that he did not agree with Bush's policies and the rest of the Bush White House team as much as he seemed to agree with much of the Reagan White House. However, overall the only person to come out of Fitzwater's book looking bad is John Sununu the former Chief of Staff. He comes off as paranoid and really a generally nasty guy.
Fitzwater also writes probably the finest view of why Bush lost the 1992 Presidental race and the bungling inside of the White House that caused it. Unfortunately he avoids writing much about the invasion of Panama and Desert Storm, two of the biggest events of the Bush Presidency. Fitzwater rationalizes this by stating many other books will be written on those two events, however I would liked to have known how he handled it in terms of the briefings and the announcement of the invasion of Panama and the beginning of Desert Storm.
Overall, this is a fine book and should be read by anyone who wants an insider's view of what the Washington Press Corps and their relationship with the White House is really like as well as anyone interested in how Bush managed to turn huge popularity raitings during and after Desert Storm into a political defeat in 1992.

"Call the Briefing" by Marlin Fitzwater puts you inside the White House. The reader is brought right to the Podium, fielding questions from a voracious Press Corps ready to do almost anything for a story. And you are there with the President and the Cabinet, discussing strategy and estimating every action's media reaction.It was hard to put this book down. You meet the very idealistic Ronald Reagan and the very professional George H. W. Bush through the eyes of the man who served a Press Secretary in both Administrations. Mr. Fitzwater's longevity in that position attests to his skill at working with the White House insiders and the news media.

Many of the events covered are specific to the Reagan and Bush days, but you also experience the many duties of the White House Press Secretary in any Administration, a role that could give ulcers to almost anyone. This gave me a real appreciation of the "24/7" crises White House Staff in any Administration, must battle every day.I especially liked Mr. Fitzwater's writing, honed through years of experience. I liked his ability to paint events in a terse yet rich way. All the journeys of Marlin Fitzwater come alive, starting as a farm boy in Abeliene, Kansas and a reporter and editor in small-town Kansas newspapers.

Although he had originally wanted a career as a journalist, his opportunity came on the other side of the podium, handling public relations at Government agencies. Mr. Fitzwater got his baptism by fire at the Environmental Protection Agency, handling the hot potato of the Three Mile Island Nuclear leak. For better or worse, it is the news media which ultimately decides what is news and how that news is presented to the public. But their power is even greater than we perceive. They can choose to make any particular event, such as a Presidential Speech, front-page headline news or bury it on the Obituary page.

Mr. Fitzwater handled his dual challenge very well: to communicate the Administration's activities in the most favorable light, and at the same time building trust among the White House Press Corps by being fair and honest. One sees the successes, such as the Summit Meetings held by both Presidents Reagan and Bush with Premiere Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. And you see the bad times, such as the unfortunate illnesses suffered by Mr. Bush at Camp David and again in Japan, which caused many people to question his ability to finish his term. The reader also learns about the successes and failures of the Movers and Shakers in the White House, from Caspar Weiberger and Iran-Contra to the rise and fall of the autocratic Chief of Staff John Sununu. And of course the Media are happy to make a story at anyone's expense.

Definitely five stars, and recommended for anyone who wants to know more about what happens in White House and how it affects the Nation.

Marlin Fitzwater is still, in my mind, the supreme model of a press secretary. He was sharp, quick witted, capable of being funny, and honest. This is a terrific book that not only lets us in on what a press secretary's job is really like, he gives us the inside story on many important events in the second Reagan and Bush administrations. He also tells delicious stories about the Whitehouse press corps that are entertaining and informative.

The author provides enough of his own biography, about fifty pages, to give us a better idea how he became who he is and how he came to Washington and ended up working for Larry Speakes, Reagan's press secretary at the time. He grew up on a Kansas wheat farm, ended up working at some small newspapers and working his way through college like many of us less well to do children of the middle and working classes did and do.

He provides some key insights into the Reagan administration and is not afraid to say when he thinks Reagan was less than successful or what his weaknesses were, in his view. However, he is also extremely positive and explains where he thinks Reagan received bad advice and was less than well served by certain advisors.

The accounts of the Bush administration are also excellent. Each anecdote is not only interesting but is used to illustrate some principle of the media in Washington and how the feebback between the press and politics works. The campaign between Bush and Clinton, whom the press adored, is especially illustrative.

Each press secretary nowadays writes a book about their time in the hot seat, and they are usually good. After all, they are in that job because they know how to tell a story and communicate with the media and through them with us. But Fitzwater's book is a special example that sets the standard for all the rest.

"Call the Briefing" by Marlin Fitzwater puts you inside the White House. The reader is brought right to the Podium, fielding questions from a voracious Press Corps ready to do almost anything for a story. And you are there with the President and the Cabinet, discussing strategy and estimating every action's media reaction.It was hard to put this book down. You meet the very idealistic Ronald Reagan and the very professional George H. W. Bush through the eyes of the man who served a Press Secretary in both Administrations. Mr. Fitzwater's longevity in that position attests to his skill at working with the White House insiders and the news media.

Many of the events covered are specific to the Reagan and Bush days, but you also experience the many duties of the White House Press Secretary in any Administration, a role that could give ulcers to almost anyone. This gave me a real appreciation of the "24/7" crises White House Staff in any Administration, must battle every day.I especially liked Mr. Fitzwater's writing, honed through years of experience. I liked his ability to paint events in a terse yet rich way. All the journeys of Marlin Fitzwater come alive, starting as a farm boy in Abeliene, Kansas and a reporter and editor in small-town Kansas newspapers.

Although he had originally wanted a career as a journalist, his opportunity came on the other side of the podium, handling public relations at Government agencies. Mr. Fitzwater got his baptism by fire at the Environmental Protection Agency, handling the hot potato of the Three Mile Island Nuclear leak. For better or worse, it is the news media which ultimately decides what is news and how that news is presented to the public. But their power is even greater than we perceive. They can choose to make any particular event, such as a Presidential Speech, front-page headline news or bury it on the Obituary page.

Mr. Fitzwater handled his dual challenge very well: to communicate the Administration's activities in the most favorable light, and at the same time building trust among the White House Press Corps by being fair and honest. One sees the successes, such as the Summit Meetings held by both Presidents Reagan and Bush with Premiere Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. And you see the bad times, such as the unfortunate illnesses suffered by Mr. Bush at Camp David and again in Japan, which caused many people to question his ability to finish his term. The reader also learns about the successes and failures of the Movers and Shakers in the White House, from Caspar Weiberger and Iran-Contra to the rise and fall of the autocratic Chief of Staff John Sununu. And of course the Media are happy to make a story at anyone's expense.

Definitely five stars, and recommended for anyone who wants to know more about what happens in White House and how it affects the Nation.

If you have the time, enjoy political memoirs, and have an open mind, then this memoir of reflections from a press secretary during the Reagan and Bush 41 administrations is for you! I loved the book - couldn't put it down - wanted to learn more!

From Marvin Fitzwater's early years in Kansas, (which was particularly interesting to me) to newspaper jobs, making good decisions when opportunities arose, all the way to Washington, DC. his book is rich in content and fun to read. The chapters on the Love Canal and the Superfund reminded me how much more needs to be done to clean up toxic waste (Fitzwater worked in the EPA before becoming press secretary).

I still cannot understand why anyone would want the job speaking for the president to the White House reporters - this book explains the lively exchanges, awkward moments, nervousness, conflicts, and the author's six years beside two presidents, plus the campaigns for re-elections. He worked ten years in Washington,took few vacations, and was completely dedicated to his job.

There are many surprises in the book as the author explains his predicaments, commitment to being honest with reporters yet loyal to each president, and his observations on various personalities such as Gorbachev, foreign leaders,cabinet members, congressmen and senators, certain reporters, etc. And his mistakes - he made plenty!

A quote from the preface: "Political life at the White House is played out on scales grand and small, among foreign heads of state, presidents, staff, family, and the press; and all the relationships are personal. Often at the nexus of these relationships, directing traffic and explaining the rules, is the president's press secretary"

Definitely a five star rating if you enjoy being "inside" the White House.

Imagine yourself in a closed room, facing dozens of smart, somewhat sarcastic people who see your ruination, and that of your boss, as their path to glory and success. Also, they get to decide whether you win or lose. According to Marlin Fitzwater, that was the reality he faced for six years as spokesman for two U.S. presidents, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

"Call The Briefing!" is a fascinating, rather strange book. On the one hand, Fitzwater has no trouble saying the press was against him, sometimes actively, in part because of the nature of their job and in part because of ideology. But on the other hand, he really liked the press, and sweated their disfavor. They may have been jungle beasts, as he memorably paints them in the opening of one chapter, but likable on the whole. Not that he ever let his guard down.

"Treat them like professionals, and they will be your friends," he tells Bush 41. "But treat them like friends and they will betray you every time."

It seems to have worked for Fitzwater, who served the last two years of Reagan's presidency and the entirety of his successor's term of office. The last two former presidents, by comparison, have had four press secretaries apiece.

Sustaining Fitzwater, in addition to good humor, was passion for his job. "One of the most fascinating aspects of being a part of the presidency, a part of history, is the uncanny self-awareness of your role that sometimes occurs, as if you are in a painting, or playing a cameo role," he writes.

A strength of the book is the way Fitzwater puts you in his role, dealing with a number of issues that seemed quite important on that day but have already faded with time, like a health scare when Bush collapses during a jog or the resignation of a minor Reagan legal counsel in the wake of Iran-Contra. Now they seem like tiddlywinks games, but back then, each came entangled with a slew of moral, ethical, even legal quandaries.

One such time is a crisis in Panama, not the later invasion that was one of the touchstones of Bush 41, but a failed coup attempt by elements of the Panamanian military which the White House watched closely and hopefully, but with great confusion. Fitzwater learns belatedly that there were contacts between the coup plotters and U.S. forces at the Panama Canal Zone, but not passed on to the White House. Bush 41 was thus not culpable in the coup attempt. Instead, because word wasn't passed up from the Canal Zone, he appeared out of touch.

What to say when asked, point-blank, what the president knew and when he knew it? Fitzwater couldn't lie and say no contact occurred, that would be wrong and stupid besides, if caught. Tell the truth, and Bush would appear "incompetent", at least as the media spun it.

So he stalls, spins, and obfuscates. "It is the netherworld of government that we were all innocent and yet guilty at the same time," Fitzwater writes.

Fitzwater uses his book more as a primer for the job of press secretary than as a history or straightforward memoir, a mistake in emphasis that continues throughout the book. I was disappointed at times by a desert-dry tone, and more so with his unwillingness to discuss the two core events of Bush 41, the Panama invasion and Desert Storm. Instead, a lot more attention than needed is given to various summits with the Soviets, a non-entity by the time of this book's 2000 publication. Fitzwater sweats his likening Soviet premier Gorbachev to a "drugstore cowboy" for an entire chapter, even though it seems few care beyond a day or two.

But he does share a lot of himself with the reader, as well as candid impressions of those he knew, both in the White House and in the press room. Unsparing at times, crisply detailed, "Call The Briefing!" in its best moments captures well the rollercoaster emotions of being in the lions' den, waving slabs of meat without looking nervous. If not exactly the lesson book Fitzwater seems to envision, it's still very much worth a read.

I have read my fair share of political memoirs and to me they always seem to all into one of two categories. It is either the disgruntled guy that maybe did not leave on such good terms who is going to put as much venom as possible into anyone that slightly crossed him during his time in the administration, or it is the guy that thinks the President he served walked on water and is wondering why the American population did not create a monarchy with his President as the King. This book falls into the later category. I am not apposed to these types of books, I tend to like them if I liked the President so I was ok with the authors glowing review of Reagan and Bush. I just wished the author had given us little more meat with his comments. Most of the book reminded me of a rambling conversation you might have with a friend where, at the end, you really do not know what was talked about. One thing did come out very clearly, the author loved working for these two Presidents and there is absolutely no criticism, fair or unfair, within these pages.

The one thing that I did get a little annoyed at was the author's attacks on the Clinton administration. I could understand the comments about the 1992 election and those comments were fair, but what was with the comments of what the Clinton team was doing in 95? These looked to me as nothing else but simple-minded attacks to help a bruised ego. As the book went on into the Bush administration this author started to really tear into the press. On and on he would spout off about the liberal press that was just out to get good old George when maybe the author should have realized that it was the Bush team that was losing focus and was losing the election one day at a time. The author hardly ever admitted that the Bush administration made mistakes; the No New Taxes issue was not even discussed. And as other reviewers here have mentioned, the author did not touch on the two military actions undertaken during the Bush administration. Overall the book was light on new facts, but had some interesting parts about the press and some internal meetings and issues. I could not get past the petty attacks on the Clinton administration and the obsessive mantra about the negative, unfair liberal press.