Rating: 
Summary: NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Review: "'SPIN CYCLE' is a revealing, highly detailed insider account of efforts by Presidential aides, notably the White House spokesman, Mike McCurry, to control the news."--NEW YORK TIMES
Rating:
Summary: AN INSTANT BESTSELLER!!
Review: "300 nail-biting pages"--BOSTON GLOBE
Rating:
Summary: AN INSTANT BESTSELLER!!
Review: "A must read ... one of the best descriptions of the spinning of a presidency."--USA TODAY
Rating: 
Summary: average example of political power of the media
Review: "Spin Cycle" makes an excellent illustration of the political prowess of the media and the White House's approach to using the media to portray information. Despite this success, the quality of the book is quite unsatisfactory. "Spin Cycle" fails horribly at portraying consistent and accurate information relating to the actions of the Clinton White House. Many examples used in the book were later proven to be false allegations. The book is a necessary read for any student of American Politics interesting in the influence of the media. On the other hand, this book would probably not be a satisfactory read for any reader interested in learning accurate information of the Clinton White House.
Rating:
Summary: average example of political power of the media
Review: "Spin Cycle" makes an excellent illustration of the political prowess of the media and the White House's approach to using the media to portray information. Despite this success, the quality of the book is quite unsatisfactory. "Spin Cycle" fails horribly at portraying consistent and accurate information relating to the actions of the Clinton White House. Many examples used in the book were later proven to be false allegations. The book is a necessary read for any student of American Politics interesting in the influence of the media. On the other hand, this book would probably not be a satisfactory read for any reader interested in learning accurate information of the Clinton White House.
Rating:
Summary: Josef Goebbels would be proud
Review: A rather entertaining look out how the White House feeds the press. For young idealistic journalists this could be a very troubling book. While Kurtz writes of the inner workings of the White House news network, he certainly alludes to to a maxim once ennunciated by the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Josef Goebbels, "A lie repeated often enough, becomes truth."
Rating:
Summary: It's the Spin Meisters against the fourth estate..again
Review: After reading "Spin Cycle", one gets the impression that an entire horde of professionals are paid millions of dollars just to keep one another occupied! The structure of this book leaves much to be desired and i agree with a previous reviewer that this book lacks a coherent structure. The narration drifts around pretty aimlessly and if you are looking for a fast-paced, close-knit account, you won't find it here. It does not provide any new insights into the Clinton White House - we know what a fabulous spinner Mike McCurry is - but it does show us how far the inner ring of senior aides are willing to go to cover up potentially damaging news. The press on the other hand seems to be obsessed with their self-proclaimed crusade to uncover THE SCANDAL in the WH. We've all read about John Hung, whitewater, Paula Jones and all the scandals that made up the Clinton administration. In Howard Kurtz's account, we'll see just how focused the elite press corp is in uncovering all the Clinton dirt. Fair-minded reporting or personal vendetta? After reading this book, you get the impression that most of the Michael Frisbys of the press scene seem to harbour personal feuds against the WH. Investigative reporting, Yes! But ONLY investigative reporting a.k.a dirt digging? Give us a break!
Rating:
Summary: It's the Spin Meisters against the fourth estate..again
Review: After reading "Spin Cycle", one gets the impression that an entire horde of professionals are paid millions of dollars just to keep one another occupied! The structure of this book leaves much to be desired and i agree with a previous reviewer that this book lacks a coherent structure. The narration drifts around pretty aimlessly and if you are looking for a fast-paced, close-knit account, you won't find it here. It does not provide any new insights into the Clinton White House - we know what a fabulous spinner Mike McCurry is - but it does show us how far the inner ring of senior aides are willing to go to cover up potentially damaging news. The press on the other hand seems to be obsessed with their self-proclaimed crusade to uncover THE SCANDAL in the WH. We've all read about John Hung, whitewater, Paula Jones and all the scandals that made up the Clinton administration. In Howard Kurtz's account, we'll see just how focused the elite press corp is in uncovering all the Clinton dirt. Fair-minded reporting or personal vendetta? After reading this book, you get the impression that most of the Michael Frisbys of the press scene seem to harbour personal feuds against the WH. Investigative reporting, Yes! But ONLY investigative reporting a.k.a dirt digging? Give us a break!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but some definite narrative problems
Review: As a political "junkie" and avid reader of political memoirs, pundit rantings, etc., I looked forward to reading Kurtz's Spin Cycle. It was worth the read, but it was ultimately disappointing.I admired two main aspects of the book. First, this seems to be a legitimate, credible view from the inside. The use of direct quotations and the attention to detail allow the reader to be more of an insider. Secondly, Kurtz does a nice job with the characterizations of the main players. Instead of just telling the reader what so-and-so said (a common occurrence in many political books) Kurtz provides potential motivation and character traits. Again, this allows for a detailed look "behind the scenes." However, there were many aspects that disappointed. First, the book's organization was very disjointed. It was difficult to follow the progression of the story; often, I couldn't tell if Kurtz was proceeding in chronological order. Secondly, the book's ending seems "tacked on." Obviously, Kurtz couldn't have foreseen the Lewinski saga as he was planning the book, but after-the-fact, I wish Kurtz would have been able to more seamlessly include this chapter. As a result, the book seems to end, but then we have another chapter on Lewinski. Furthermore, the book ends before Clinton's spin story was over. We don't get to learn about the White House response to the Starr Report. We don't get to follow the PR during the 2001 election. I found myself wishing that Kurtz had waited to write this book until after Clinton left office. All in all, it's an interesting book and a worthy read. Some structural problems, though, proved problematic.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Fluff Cycle
Review: Being a fan of President Clinton I always read a book on his administration with a bit of a bias view. At times this book upset me and other times I was shouting "right on", given these duel responses I have come to the conclusion that, no matter that I did not agree with a number of items, the book is an overall fair look at the Clinton scandal fest. I thought the author did a great job in weaving together the pertinent facts about each of the scandals / issues with the response from the White House. I was very interested in the inside info on how the White House tried to either spin or deflect each of the stories. The author had a great deal of direct quotes of conversations, which really made the book come alive. The information about the White House briefing is worth the price of the book alone. You can actually see this type of activity at work today with the current briefings that are televised. I also was interested in the additional comments on the way that the Clinton's themselves viewed the media and their knee jerk reaction to clam up at every question. You almost got the feeling that if the Clinton's would have always listened to the media people on their staffs that some of the overall negative and nasty press they received may have been decreased to some degree. The last bit of the book that surprised me was the, at times, rude, disrespectful and almost violent way the media and the White House staff dealt with each other. You just got to wonder what the White House staff was thinking to beat up on the people with the loudest voice in the country. My only complaint was that the book ended too soon, missing the Super Bowl of the spin, the Starr Report and the impeachment. It would have been nice for the author to have held out a year or so for the full story in the paperback. Overall I found this book well written, very interesting and quite enjoyable. It is required reading for anyone that is interested in the Clinton years or the media.
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