As the World SPINS

I always thought that spin was reserved for the Bush Administration and conservative talk show hosts (please, please, please, please read Al Franken’s book Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them), but a lecture by Kerry O’Brien, an Australian journalist and television presenter, reminded me that spin is not limited to politics. Spin is also rampant in the pharmaceutical, tobacco, banking and telecommunications industries. Everyone that wants to come out winning and isn’t worried about integrity knows the value of media favor. Good press for you and bad press for your competitor is the kind of marketing money can’t buy. Or can it?

Although O’Brien doesn’t take sides in the whole spin debate, he does admit that the people in power are the most likely to use spin because they have the financial resources to employ a whole PR and marketing troop to find the best way to take old or out of context news and twist it as much as possible to make their camp look good and the opposition look bad. That should come as no surprise.

Nor should it come as a surprise that spin generates revenue. Look at the popularity of TV and radio shows that have hosts known for making outrageous statements and claims. Whenever presenters like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh misquote someone or take quotes out of context and then rant and rave and come to ridiculous conclusions, they are generating dollars. Why? Because they are creating drama where there isn´t any or excusing and pishawing the drama that actual journalists are all in a tizzy over. That’s entertainment, and these spin doctors are entertainers, not journalists.

The truth is that spin wouldn’t be as prevalent as it is if our collective attention span wasn’t the size of an amoeba. Look no further than the length of our news programs, on average between half an hour to an hour. How the hell is that enough time to report on everything, positive and negative, going on in the world? Our news is reduced to sound bites and video clips that last only seconds, and “full” story coverage is reduced to a matter of minutes. Yes, the fact is that modern day journalism is not only allowing, but promoting spin. It’s a lot easier for the “big boys” to make things up when the general public is never given all of the facts.

Source: “Marketing and spin: journalism’s big challenge,” www.onlineopinion.com, August 5, 2005