Are We Done Spinning Yet?

[Gaucho]

I know that by this point we're all probably tired of election stories but I read this one yesterday and was thoroughly fascinated.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14278-2000Dec15.html

This article illustrates to me what the real problem is today, not just in politics, but also in the news in general. And while some of you may feel that this is just another slam at Al Gore and the Democrats, I'm perfectly willing to admit that the Republicans employ their own collection of spinmeisters as well.

The real issue that has emerged from this campaign is not money (or lack of it) but rather the media and who uses (or controls) it better. Information is the real power and as long as there are people willing to distort, exaggerate, or outright lie in order to advance their cause or their candidate, we are all the poorer for it.

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

You're exactly right, Gaucho, and this article goes a long way to prove your point. He who controls media coverage controls public opinion.

I see the problem here as twofold:

First, there is the unprincipled manipulation of the media machinery, so well evidenced by this Washington Post article. Second, there's the willing complicity of the media to buy into the spin, parrot it, and lend it legitimacy and a veneer of truth.

Reporters can't entirely be blamed, though, because the demand for instantaneous news and "analysis" has become so great that there's no time to stop and cull the truth from the spin they're being fed. Reporters therefore become the mouthpieces of the spinners, all the while maintaining their pretense of being objective and fair. The only thing that approaches fairness is that the spin comes hard and heavy from both sides.

As a simple citizen I have to admit it's dizzying trying to make sense of news coverage dominated by spin and counterspin. In college, I studied history and I love it to this day because it affords us the opportunity to go back and examine all the evidence cautiously and reasonably. Yes, there are differences of interpretation, often great ones, but at least the basic facts are known.

It's the media's appointed job to deliver these facts to us in the present as they happen so that we may make our own judgements. Is it too much to ask?

With the spinmeisters at work, it probably is.

 

[Whispersecret]

Oliver Clozoff:
Reporters can't entirely be blamed, though, because the demand for instantaneous news and "analysis" has become so great that there's no time to stop and cull the truth from the spin they're being fed.

I'm certainly not demanding anything of the sort. When I see the State of the Union speech, for example, that's all I want to see. I can interpret it with my own brain. I've always felt insulted that the media thinks they have to interpret what I just heard, like I couldn't figure it out. For God's sake, they already dumb down their vocabulary in those speeches anyway, don't they?