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Monday, November 19, 2007

Spin is a four letter word

This post concerns the pejorative term, which Wikipedia disambiguates for the context of public relations as, 'signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation.' In our world of universal communicators, it has become the ubiquitous adjunct to public discourse.

I am reminded of the old joke, which I recall first hearing in the musical Fiddler on the Roof:
The arbiter to a dispute between two men listens attentively to both disputants, and declares, in turn, to each of them, 'You're right!' A bystander objects, 'Wait a minute. How can they both be right?' Whereupon the arbiter declares, 'You know, you're also right!'
This old joke has evolved into the maddening situation that pervades our usual experience of what passes for public debate in the media today. The culprit, of course, is spin.

Time and again, I listen to a debate on a subject of interest to me. I hear the first position and, frequently, it seems to make sense. Then I hear the counter view; it also seems to make sense. Logic tells me they can't both be right. Somebody is putting a spin on their position; likely both of them are.

It is frustrating how rarely does anyone resist the temptation to overstate his own case. They can not let the facts speak for themselves. They must exaggerate the positive and attenuate the negative. No one wants to risk being truthfully gray. Unless, of course, a politician refuses accountability for a well-defined position. In that common case, a truthfully gray platform morphs into a waffling fencepost.

How refreshing it would be to hear occasionally some expert say, 'I'm not sure.' Or to hear a point of view expressed without recourse to a comparative or superlative degree, let alone a hyperbole. Whatever happened to Plain Speaking? You are sorely missed, Harry.

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