Free Ride: John McCain and the Media

In the midst of the most contentious American presidential campaign in forty years, comes FREE RIDE: John McCain and the Media — bestselling authors David Brock and Paul Waldman’s eye-opening study of how the media has helped John McCain’s political rise from the Keating Five scandal to presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Anchor Books will publish FREE RIDE next Tuesday, March 25, 2008, as An Anchor Books Paperback Original.

FREE RIDE: John McCain and the Media explores the way the American media can affect and influence public perception of the candidates and other players involved in national politics. The book will be required reading for anyone interested in the political process, as well as those frustrated or fascinated by the role media plays in politics.

In FREE RIDE Brock and Waldman deliver a profile of McCain and a study of the role of the media in political identity-making. Here the study provides a fuller portrait of McCain, and exposes that he has never been the straight-shooting “maverick” he claims to be. Brock and Waldman cut through the myths surrounding the 2008 Republican presidential candidate to show he has benefited from a unique media narrative in his favor. His record has always been that of a staunch conservative, even as the media portrayed him as an independent. The media has looked the other way when McCain uttered comments that would have sunk other candidates; it has overlooked his hypocrisies and policy reversals, which have resulted elsewhere in branding candidates as flip-floppers.

We live in a gotcha media culture that revels in exposing the foibles and hypocrisies of our politicians. But one politician manages to escape this treatment, getting the benefit of the doubt and a positive spin for nearly everything he does: John McCain. Indeed, even during his temporary decline in popularity in 2007, the media continued to support him by lamenting his fate rather than criticizing the flip-flops and politicking that undermined his popular media driven image as a “maverick”.

David Brock and Paul Waldman show how the media has enabled McCain’s rise from the Keating Five scandal to the underdog hero of the 2000 primaries to his roller-coaster run for the 2008 nomination. They illuminate how the press falls for McCain’s “straight talk” and how the Arizona senator gets away with inconsistencies and misrepresentations for which the media skewers other politicians. This is a fascinating study of how the media shape the political debate, and an essential book for every political junkie.

Additionally, a postscript accompanies the book to include up-to-date details on McCain’s 2008 run for the presidency. Factual and entirely relevant, FREE RIDE is a must read!

Now Available Online for Pre-Order

March 22, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized