Ari Fleischer
Lawrence Ari Fleischer (born October 13, 1960) is an American media consultant and political aide who served as the 23rd White House Press Secretary, for President George W. Bush, from January 2001 to July 2003.
Ari Fleischer
Scott McClellan
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As press secretary in the Bush administration, Fleischer was a prominent advocate for the invasion of Iraq. Since leaving the White House, he has worked as a media consultant and commentator. He joined Fox News as a contributor in July 2017.[1]
Early life[edit]
Fleischer was born in 1960 in New York City,[2] the son of Martha and Alan A. Fleischer.[3] His mother was a database coordinator and his father was owner of an executive recruiting company.[3] His parents were Jewish; his mother is a Hungarian immigrant who lost much of her family in the Holocaust. Both parents were Democrats who were "horrified" when Fleischer became a Republican, he told an interviewer in 2003: "While I lived at home and when I started college, I was a liberal Democrat. In a sense, it was President Carter who drove me out of the Democratic Party and it was President Reagan who welcomed me into the Republican Party."[4] He graduated from Fox Lane High School in Bedford, New York, in 1978, and graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1982.
Congressional staffer[edit]
Upon his graduation from Middlebury, Fleischer worked as press secretary for Jon S. Fossel, a Republican candidate for a New York congressional seat. Later Fleischer worked as press secretary for Norman Lent. From 1985 to 1988, he was field director for the National Republican Congressional Committee. He went back to being a press secretary in 1988, working for congressman Joseph DioGuardi.
Fleischer served as U.S. Senator Pete Domenici's press secretary from 1989 to 1994 and as spokesman for the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee for five years. He worked as deputy communications director for George H. W. Bush's 1992 reelection campaign.[5]
Media bias[edit]
In his book Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias: Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong ― and Just Doesn't Care, Fleischer argues that "there's a younger generation of journalists … who think their job is to be subjective" and that "They don't believe in objectivity. They don't believe in two sides. They believe that their side, particularly on social issues and on racial matters, is the only right side."[30]
Consultancy firm[edit]
Today he works as a media consultant for various corporations and sports organizations and players through his company, Ari Fleischer Communications.[31] He has consulted for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper,[32][33] Mark McGwire, the Washington Redskins,[34] Tiger Woods and the Green Bay Packers.
He also worked with the Saudi Arabian LIV Golf Tour.[35]
Memoir[edit]
In 2005, Fleischer published a memoir, Taking Heat: The President, the Press and My Years in the White House. Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times, "[T]his book does not provide any new insights into the workings of the current White House. It does not present compelling portraits of cabinet members or members of the White House supporting cast. And it does not shed new light on the president or his methods of governance." She found the book "insular, defensive and wholly predictable."[36] In Salon.com, Eric Boehlert declared that despite "a few curious nuggets," the book is "long on praise for his boss and criticism of the 'liberal' media, and short on revelations."[36]
Personal life[edit]
In November 2002, Fleischer married Rebecca Elizabeth Davis, an employee in the Office of Management and Budget, in an interfaith ceremony.[37] Rabbi Harold S. White officiated the ceremony, with the participation of Rev. Michael J. Kelley, a Roman Catholic priest.[3] He resides in New York.[37] he raised his children Jewish and are members of a synagogue in Westchester, New York.[37] Fleischer's brother, Michael, worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
He is on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition.[38]
In other media[edit]
Fleischer is portrayed by Rob Corddry in Oliver Stone's W., a biographical movie about George W. Bush.