On spin (from unit 6)
'Spin' is a more recent notion. The 1950's 'spin doctors', the original American radio DJ's, told their audiences what to listen for in the latest pop record. As any advertiser knows, you can't make someone like something just by shouting loudly enough how great it is. There has to be something worth calling attention to.
Yet there is all the world of difference between spinning judgements of quality — which is what the DJ's were doing — and spinning facts. Between those who loved pop music and those who heard it as an ugly barrage of noise there was no 'truth' of the matter. The objectivity of aesthetic judgement does not imply the necessity for universal acceptance. Yet this is how we think of factual truth
Spin doctoring has come in for some bad press, especially in the wake of the successive publicity fiascos of the British Labour Party under Tony Blair's leadership. The truth is that politicians have always spinned. But there is a fine line which is easy to cross.
In Labour's case, there was a justified desire for seeking to redress the imbalance of a hostile press which had traditionally always been seen to favour the Tories over Labour. However, fighting fire with fire is not always the best strategy, and not a few fingers got scorched.
The main part of the business of politics is getting people to pull together. Merciless self-examination is not generally the best way to do this — although on occasion a self-deprecating willingness to own up to one's faults can work well in garnering sympathetic support.
More significant in politics is the phenomenon of the self-fulfilling prophecy. If you say you are succeeding with the policy, even if there hasn't been much success of late, you are objectively more likely to succeed. Your eyes, and the eyes of your party are commendably fixed on the goal ahead. While, understandably, political commentators are more interested in taking the magnifying glass to every crack and fault.
However, there is one respect in which the world of business diverges significantly from politics. As in a court of law, political life is essentially adversarial. Whichever party is in opposition will try to put a negative spin on the latest economic reports or opinion polls while the government counter this with a positive spin. To expect that this will happen is not cynicism. Whichever party you support, you expect the leader to make the best possible case for what they believe.
By contrast, the end of year Company Chairman's report should be objective and judicious, and we are rightfully offended when (unfortunately, as all-too often proves to be the case) spin has gained the upper hand over truthfulness. [contd.]
