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1-Page Summary of The Fixer

Overview

Bradley Tusk has been helping disruptive start-ups fight back against the establishment. He knows how to use his media savvy, political strategy and knowledge of regulatory decision making to help these companies.

In this passage, we’ll learn about the author’s successes and failures in politics. He’ll teach us how to get press coverage for our own campaigns as well as ruin someone else’s campaign. We’ll also find out how he uses his business knowledge to create new companies that will change the world.

In this article, you will learn how Tusk learned about the power of mass media from a newspaper’s funeral for dead trees. You’ll also learn how Uber showed that people can fight against big corporations and win. Lastly, you’ll discover why if things had been just a little different we could have had Bloomberg as president instead of Trump.

Big Idea #1: Tusk’s early career taught him the importance of public relations and controlling the narrative.

All politicians want two things: constant attention and constant validation. The best way to get that is through publicity. Tusk learned this in the 1980s, when he worked for Henry Stern, a New York City council member and the city’s parks commissioner. Stern wanted more publicity because it would keep him happy as well as bring attention to his department so that he could secure his budget and policies easier.

Parks aren’t interesting, so Tusk had to get creative. When Stern wanted new laws passed about cutting trees without permission, Tusk staged a funeral for “murdered” trees. A new bathroom was built in one of the city’s parks, and instead of holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony, they cut toilet paper rolls. The media loved it and gave great coverage to the event because they were invited to it.

Tusk was able to use his creativity in his next job as communications director for Senator Chuck Schumer. He knew that most people don’t really know what politicians do all day, so he and the senator’s office tried to get constant media coverage by creating events. For example, they wrote a letter protesting rising prices of windshield wiper fluid when there wasn’t much else going on at the time. It turned out to be prescient because it happened weeks before the 2000 presidential election, which descended into chaos due to disputed votes made using old-fashioned punch-card machines. This helped make Schumer an expert on voting machines and earned him lots of press coverage.

Tusk learned how to influence the media and get what he wanted from politicians. That was an important lesson for his future career as a politician. If you can mold the media narrative, you can get what you want from politicians.

Big Idea #2: In political campaigns, you have to pick your enemy and target them ruthlessly.

When Tusk became campaign manager for Michael Bloomberg’s third mayoral term in 2009, the outlook wasn’t good. During his eight years as mayor, Bloomberg raised taxes and water rates and cost New Yorkers a lot of money. The mayor was going to have a tough time getting reelected against whoever ran against him. But what Tusk wanted to avoid most was having Anthony Weiner run against him, since he had so much charisma and would be a great fundraiser with his Jewish heritage.

So, Tusk built an entire campaign to make Weiner feel like the risk of standing was so great that he would simply quit. In order to do this, they fought dirty and made him nervous about the scrutiny he’d face if he did run. He had only passed one bill during his time in office: a visa for models. Research showed that some of those models donated money to Weiner’s campaign, which is illegal since non-citizens can’t donate money. After getting briefed by Tusk’s team, “The New York Post” ran a damaging story about “Weiner’s ‘Naughty’ Hottie$.”