Ari Fleischer: Still saying nothing after all these years

The former Bush White House press secretary's memoir is long on praise for his boss and criticism of the "liberal" media, and short on revelations.

By Eric Boehlert

Mar 14, 2005 | Historians curious to learn more about the inner workings of the Bush White House probably know better than to hope for much from Ari Fleischer's new book, "Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House." The former White House spokesman who earned his stripes by telling beat reporters as little as possible during his two and a half years behind the podium, before stepping down in May 2003, offers up little in the form of fresh analysis. Instead, readers learn Bush was committed to ousting Saddam Hussein, upset by the corporate Enron-like scandals, and a really great boss: "President Bush runs a very inclusive, tight ship. He is one of the most uplifting, personnel-oriented, tough, demanding, humorous bosses you'll ever find."

If there is a disapproving word, phrase or sentence in the book about the White House, it's well hidden. That's no surprise, given the military-like loyalty that runs through his White House. (Former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill being the one exception to date.) Not willing to break any new ground dissecting the White House, Fleischer sets aside large chunks of "Taking Heat" to analyze the press.

His thesis is that the press has been tough on Bush, not because it has an inherent liberal bias, but because it's too focused on conflict. At least that's Fleischer's diplomatic cover story. But it's obvious that half an inch beneath the surface, Fleischer signs off on the right-wing consensus about a Democrat-leaning press corps that does not treat Republicans fairly. He refers again and again to the press's liberal tendencies, even making the odd suggestion that it's the media's fault more conservatives don't become journalists. "The field of journalism only hurts itself when so many people who enter it come from a similar ideological point of view," he writes, stopping just short of endorsing a newsroom affirmative action-type program for college Republicans.

By no means a tell-all memoir, "Taking Heat" does include a few curious nuggets. Fleischer, whose entire job revolved around dealing with the press and tracking its work, describes himself as an "avid" reader of the news, yet he reads only "three or four newspapers a day," which may be three or four more than his former boss, but likely two or three fewer than what most congressional staffers review each morning. Such was the accidental tourist nature of being this administration's media point person. As one White House reporter told Salon at the time of Fleischer's departure, "Ari had an impossible job. He was supposed to talk to the press in a White House that does not talk to the press."

Elsewhere in "Taking Heat," Fleischer, who chastises the press corps for not checking its facts, writes matter-of-factly that the bungled CBS report on "60 Minutes Wednesday" last September was based on "forged" documents, an inaccurate statement. In January, the independent panel set up by CBS to investigate the matter reported it could not conclude that the documents were forged.

The book is filled with curious omissions. There's no reference to Fleischer's now famous -- and ominous -- warning to a White House reporter who early in the administration asked a pointed question at a briefing. Afterward, Fleischer called the reporter at his desk and notified him his question had been "noted in the building."

And there's also no mention about how Fleischer, along with off-the-record White House aides, helped fan the flames of a fabricated 2001 scandal about exiting Clinton staffers who allegedly trashed the White House. Just a week in office, Fleischer piqued reporters' interest by confirming the acts of vandalism were being "catalogued," while aides lavished journalists with descriptions of phone lines being cut and trash strewn all over the West Wing. (The General Accounting Office looked into the matter and concluded those wild accusations were false.) Nonetheless, Fleischer writes, "Through my first six months on the job, the press repeatedly tried to bait me into a fight with President Clinton on a variety of issues. I tried hard not to let them create a conflict."

Of course it was the Houston Chronicle (which backed Bush in 2000) that once noted about Fleischer, "Perhaps not since Ron Ziegler made inoperative statements on behalf of Richard Nixon, however, has a press secretary exhibited such a brazen and cavalier disregard for the facts."

Next Page: "Why have reporters largely stopped using the word 'liberal'?" Fleischer wonders

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