Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House [Hardcover]

Ari Fleischer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

The early years of the twenty-first century were a tumultuous time in America. The country faced a hotly contested presidential election, the largest terrorist attack in the nation's history, and the early stages of war. Through it all, President George W. Bush surrounded himself with a handful of close advisers. During this time the man beside the President was Ari Fleischer, his press secretary and one of his most trusted confidants. In this role, Fleisher was present for every decision and became an eyewitness to history.

In this riveting account, Fleischer goes behind the scenes as he recalls his experiences in the West Wing. Through the ups and downs of this time, he took the heat, fielded the questions, and brought the President's message into living rooms around the world.

In Taking Heat, Fleischer, for the first time, gives his perspective on:

• The 2000 election, from the recounts to the transition to power
• September 11, 2001, its aftermath, and the anthrax scare
• The pressure-filled buildup to the war in Iraq and the President's thoughts as the war began
• Life in the White House, from learning to adjust to the pace of the West Wing and his early briefings to his relationship with the press
• The White House press corps, who they are, and how they report the news
• The factors that led to his decision to leave Washington behind.

This is the story of the men and women of the White House press corps and the cornerstones of democracy: freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. Fleischer presents an in-depth, insider's view on the Washington political arena from a perspective few have seen.

Fleischer writes of his belief that the press has a bias in Washington. It's not a question of partisanship or press-driven ideology. Instead, it's a focus on conflict, particularly if it's a conflict they can attach to the President. It's the nature of the White House press corps, regardless of who's in power. The members of the White House press corps are masters at being devil's advocate, able to take with passion the opposite side of whatever issue the President supports. Fleischer's job was to calmly field their questions, no matter how pointed.

Taking Heat is an introspective exploration of the top political events in the first half of the Bush administration, as well as the candid observations of a professional who stood in the bright lights of the world stage.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A former White House press secretary, Fleischer became a lightning rod for accusations about the Bush administration's alleged spin, secrecy and hostility to the press, claims that may not be quieted by this sunnily defensive memoir. Fleischer acknowledges the White House's fanatical "message discipline," which still seems in force in his glowing portrait of Bush as a decisive leader, stalwart in advancing freedom and opposing "evil," forever comforting the families of terror victims and military casualties. And he cops to some stonewalling at press briefings, explaining, with some justice, that many questions concerned security and military operations he couldn't discuss. The many lengthy fencing matches he reprints sometimes evoke sympathy, as reporters badger him with provocative questions and he responds "with the same non-answer every time." Mainly, though, he blames his testy relations with the media on the media themselves and what he sees as their knee-jerk controversializing and pervasive liberal bias, and gleefully cites examples. Fleischer is less forthcoming on his own responsibility for relating false claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction; "we may all have been wrong," he shrugs, but contends it doesn't matter because Saddam might have gotten WMDs someday. Seldom have a press secretary's inaccuracies had such momentous consequences, so Fleischer's reluctance to examine how and why they occurred is disappointing indeed. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Former White House press secretary Fleischer offers a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most high profile positions in any administration and observations on bias in the media. Born into a Jewish liberal Democratic family in New York, he traces his personal journey to the Republican Party and the campaign and early administration of President Bush. He details private moments from the contentious 2000 presidential election when Bush declined to worry about the outcome to Bush's expressed desire for peace in the Middle East even as he fights against terrorism. Fleischer also offers quotes and anecdotes on the president's thoughts and actions on the war in Iraq and domestic policies. Fleischer criticizes a press he sees as biased in favor of the Democrats, noting differences in press treatment of positions from affirmative action to abortion. But the first and foremost bias of the press is in favor of conflict, Fleischer maintains, in this revealing look at how the news is made and covered from the perspective of the White House. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First edition (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060747625
• ISBN-13: 978-0060747626
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,366,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting look inside the Bush White House but beware, February 14, 2008

By 

Lehigh History Student (Bethlehem, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House (Hardcover)

Ari provides an interesting book in his autobiography as President Bush's White House Press Secretary. I always hate to review books like this because they are so politically charged and ideologues on either side tend to get in a huff over what you say. I will endeavor to keep this as neutral as possible. This book sets out to accomplish many objectives but only hits half of them. First and foremost it is one of the best looks at the role of the press secretary and the sheer stress the job has on a person. Whether you like or hate President Bush there is no one who can deny that the role of press secretary is a hard job especially under a tight lipped and secretive white House. Andy Card's goal as chief of staff was to keep leaks to a minimum which frustrates the press leaving their only source of information the press secretary. When the press secretary is instructed not to discuss military matters it becomes even more adversarial. One of the interesting things learned from the book is what viewpoint the Press Secretary is supposed to have. I found it fascinating that he is only there to represent the views of the president and that does not necessarily have to be the wishes of the branches of government that report to the president.

One of the other objectives was to provide a critical narrative of the press and give insight into the White House Press Crops. I found his look at the White House Press fascinating and he really does put you inside the room of the toughest reporters in the United States. He illustrates well his points about the adversarial nature of the press and the desire of the press to create conflict which leads to stories. Many times the same questions are asked over and over hoping for a slip that the Press Secretary cannot afford to give. One of the angles that I think he does handle poorly is the bias of the press. While there are voluminous studies to show that the press is slanted right Ari seems to not acknowledge that all media is biased in one direction or another. The White House press does not give passes to any president. People today do not trust the news they get from the press and rightly so due to the biases that are present be they Fox News or MSNBC. While he highlights the point of on the liberal media it is done far better by Benard Goldberg in his book Bias.

Finally Ari tries to make a defense of President Bush and his policies/leadership style. Some of his book seems to be aimed at knocking down the arguments in the Price of Loyalty. While this is another viewpoint again the truth probably lies in the middle. Some of his defenses of trying to shift blame to the press for starting up the Iraq war are fairly ludicrous. Ari does not sit in on any of the national security briefings and the president preferred himself to comment on those matters leaving Ari in a hard position to comment on them after the fact. One of the things he does refute well that many agree with is the loyalty that Bush shows to those who are loyal to him. There is a clear look that Bush's leadership style does work within his White House and he is respected by the staff. Ari also seems to take it upon himself to set the record straight and show the country that Bush did not think of the war in Iraq in a vacuum that many other people including the press also had the same idea along the way. He is largely successful in this although he glosses over one of the critical mistakes. The landing on the USS Lincoln with the banner Mission Accomplished was one of the great errors in the press of fighting the war and it is skipped over here. I think Ari is right in saying that the press views any war that is long as a quagmire and Vietnam and any war where we win quickly is Desert Storm and must be over in a week. There is a lack of reality by the press which filters to the country.

Overall an excellent book and very well done. Ari provides unique insight into the Bush White House and while it is biased it does not make it useless. He raises critical questions that require issues to be reexamined and while he is loathe to critize his former boss for the things he did wrong we still see a good look at Bush the man and the President.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit cumbersome, but fascinating material, July 30, 2005

By 

DocColls (Lubbock, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House (Hardcover)

The whiny left will cry foul and hope that the "unenlightened" middle America continues to stick their heads in the sand, and the stodgy right will brandish this book like a blade of righteous indignation. As a staunch independent, the insight into the left-biased media is vindicating for someone like myself who always has that nagging feeling that you're not quite getting both sides of the story. The writing itself was difficult to pick out a linear theme, more of a textbook to be studied than an autobiography to be leisurely enjoyed. The subject matter however is fascinating, giving you a fly-on-the-wall perspective into the most powerful office on earth.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Big disappointment, June 2, 2005

By 

Irv Fisher (Potomac, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House (Hardcover)

I having nothing but praise for Ari Fleishcher's work as President Bush's press secretary. But unfortunately, his decision to treat his book like just another press conference makes for a very disappointing, unsatisfying read. What struck me the most was his failure to offer anything even remotely critical of the President. His hero worship/adherance to the party line as press secretary makes perfect sense, but as an independent minded author, one is forced to question how in his years with the President, he failed to see a single thing that had been handled incorrectly. Is this the immaculate Presidency? Could anyone be that perfect? As a supporter of President Bush, I was hoping to discern a more complete picture of his leadership skills and character. But all you get here is a campaign ad. He even spins the now infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner, using it as an opportunity to slam the press for failing to report the full breadth of the President's remarks. I supported the war, but c'mon Ari, this was a screw up of monumental proportions in terms of public perception. An honest statement like "we were right on the substance, but we made a big mistake in terms of giving our detractors ammunition" would have been welcome and refreshing. Instead, like with most campaign commercials, after a while, you just stop listening and want to change the channel.