Woody Klein

Poverty has been a fact of American life since the nation's founding; every American president has faced this scourge during his administration in one way or another. Whether bound up in the problems of slavery, immigration, or the recent financial and housing crises, the cycle of poverty has bedeviled presidents, policymakers, legislators, and scholars for more than two centuries. Yet poverty is increasing, not disappearing. One out of three Americans is now living at or below the poverty line, according to recent studies. How did this happen? Woody Klein explores the anti-poverty programs—or lack thereof—during each successive administration, explaining how and why no president thus far has been able to end poverty. American Poverty urges the president and Congress to work together to finally eradicate poverty in America. Poverty is the Achilles' heel of our national and economic security, Klein asserts. Unless the chasm between rich and poor can be bridged, America will never live up to its full potential as the most successful democracy on earth. Will the White House answer the call?

This book examines ten major political scandals involving the White House in the past 50 years, revealing how the investigative reporters behind the stories uncovered the hidden truths. On numerous occasions, the dogged efforts of investigative journalists have led to a dissemination of information that had a direct effect on the course of American history—the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Watergate scandal, "Monicagate" of the Clinton administration, and the Enron accounting scandal. The Inside Stories of Modern Political Scandals: How Investigative Reporters Have Changed the Course of American History features in-depth interviews with all living journalists responsible for revealing major political scandals involving the White House, including Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the reporters responsible for bringing the Watergate scandal to the light of day. The author presents a fascinating view into the "story behind the story" regarding the ten most momentous, modern-day political scandals in America. Containing both anecdotes from the investigative reporters involved and specific examples from published articles, this text reveals the specific methods used by these award-winning journalists to successfully pursue their stories and earn their titles as watchdogs of our government, our military, and big business.

This is the first volume to chronicle the story of the evolution of the symbiotic relationship between the presidential press secretaries and reporters who covered White House news during the terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Author Woody Klein has been both a reporter (for the Washington Post and the New York World-Telegram & Sun) and a press secretary himself to New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay, who ran for president in 1972. The book reveals how the presidential press secretaries' role has evolved from old-fashioned public relations into a smooth-working system of releasing news and responding to reporters' questions at daily briefings by portraying the president in the best possible light. Klein ferrets out fresh, anecdotal information and includes interviews with nationally known personalities—including former White House press secretaries and notable journalists who have covered the White House. He brings to life the personalities and views of every presidential spokesman on how the job has grown in stature as the press secretaries or spinmeisters have become high-profile officials. Klein reveals how the tension between government and the media—normally healthy in any democracy—has resulted in the manipulation of facts and the release of favorable official news. It started subtly in the Roosevelt administration and has been carefully honed with the transformation of the media in the information and technology revolution; he shows how it has been refined to the point where it is now recognized for what it is: slanting or packaging the news in favor of the president to make it acceptable—even desired—by the public. Perception quickly becomes reality, and once the facts of a situation have been accepted by the establishment—politicians and the press alike—it becomes virtually impossible to change people's minds about them. The book documents scores of examples of White House spin by topic rather than chronologically—for example, how different press secretaries managed the news in wartime, in foreign policy, in scandals, and in a host of domestic issues such as education and national disasters. Twenty-three press secretaries are included. The most notable among them are Steve Early (Roosevelt), James Hagerty (Eisenhower), Pierre Salinger (Kennedy), Bill Moyers (Johnson), Ron Ziegler (Nixon), Marlin Fitzwater (Reagan and G. H. W. Bush), Dee Dee Myers (Clinton), Mike McCurry (Clinton), Joe Lockhart (Clinton), Ari Fleischer (Bush), Scott McClellan (Bush), and Tony Snow (Bush).

No fight for civil liberties ever stays won, wrote Roger Baldwin (1884-1981) in 1971. He was in a position to know. After working hard to preserve the right of Americans to free expression during World War I, he founded the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920. The ACLU quickly became, and remains to this day, the staunchest defender of American civil liberties. Woody Klein has selected from Baldwin's vast writings those essays that are most pertinent to the civil liberties debate today. In each chapter these writings focus on a particular theme, such as national security or invasion of privacy. Each is followed by commentary from some of America's most prominent politicians and journalists, including Nat Hentoff, Victor Navasky, and Senators Robert C. Byrd, Russell D. Feingold, Christopher J. Dodd, and Edward M. Kennedy.