No spin is a conservative win
Everybody complains today about all of the political spin. My contention is that if you take away all of the spin, conservative ideas would clearly win. I won't begin to claim who started the spinning machine, though I think most could guess who I would blame. Whoever started it, the other side had a choice either to answer the spin straight and without spin, or to respond with a reverse spin.
We are now in an environment that if one side stopped spinning, the other side would eat them alive. This is because the media is also spinning and doing a poor job of conveying truth to the people. There are 3 major categories of media: news, commentary and entertainment. Sometimes there are hybrids of these. The best hybrids are commentary and entertainment, but commentary is already a hybrid of sorts with news and opinion.
The main question we need to ask ourselves throughout all of these controversies is what do we want if truth and winning are in conflict? When you read through the insane comments on the blogs, you don't get a strong sense that people want the truth. You clearly sense that they want to win, even if it means the truth must be sacrificed. For me, the truth may hurt but I want it. Of course I think the whole truth laid bare while causing hits here and there on the right, would obliterate the left. What do you think?
We are now in an environment that if one side stopped spinning, the other side would eat them alive. This is because the media is also spinning and doing a poor job of conveying truth to the people. There are 3 major categories of media: news, commentary and entertainment. Sometimes there are hybrids of these. The best hybrids are commentary and entertainment, but commentary is already a hybrid of sorts with news and opinion.
The main question we need to ask ourselves throughout all of these controversies is what do we want if truth and winning are in conflict? When you read through the insane comments on the blogs, you don't get a strong sense that people want the truth. You clearly sense that they want to win, even if it means the truth must be sacrificed. For me, the truth may hurt but I want it. Of course I think the whole truth laid bare while causing hits here and there on the right, would obliterate the left. What do you think?
posted by All_I_Can_Stands @ 9:08 PM
2 Comments:
At 4:02 AM,
LA Sunset said…
I have been involved with and have followed politics for a very long time. I have heard the best of spin doctors.
But, I cannot remember a time when the ad hominem attacks were so vicious. The 24 hour news cycle has ushered in an era of the sound bite. The sound bite game means, as a politico, you have to get your digs in quicker.
Very good observations in your post. And thank you for visiting my site, feel free to come back anytime.
At 1:43 PM,
All_I_Can_Stands said…
It takes the truth and turns it into a game. It replaces the 'best' man with the most 'strategic' man to win.
Even during the '04 election the media did not portray a contest of ideas. They conveyed the idea that the one with the best communication skills must have the best ideas, where Kerry is obviously better gifted in speaking than Bush.
Of course when it was Reagan, the Great Communicator, the media diminished his speaking ability to the byline "Reagan rhetoric".
I am continually amused when I see on lefty blogs the claim that the media is a GOP mouthpiece. They are either so radical that Dan Rather looks like a conservative or they know the truth and are terrified of losing that strong ally in their cause.
Thanks for visiting me. I have a bookmark to you and come from time to time and finally added a post.
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