英语阅读：Political spin
Reader question:What does the phrase "put a spin on it" mean?
My comments:
Politicians are constantly putting a spin on something. I mean, political
spin is what comes uppermost to my mind. And that means they are twisting a
story around in order to make the story appear more favorable. In other words,
to put a spin on something is to lie about it.
Yes, you may have sensed it; there is a somewhat derogative connotation to
the phrase.
Physically, if you spin something, you turn it round and round. You give
washed clothes a spin, for example, to remove water. Figuratively speaking, if
you spin a story, you, er, you just don't tell it straight. Take beggars in the
street, for example. They are often seen "spinning" painful, hard-luck stories
in front of passersby in order to win more sympathy from anyone who stops to
listen.
And politicians and businesspeople tend put a spin on nearly everything
these days if they make an address to the public, partially thanks (or no
thanks) to the advent of the Internet. It is simply more difficult for anyone to
hide anything any more. Hence all the spin, if you want to take a sympathetic
view of it, is borne out of necessity, necessity to survive as administrations
and companies all have to survive in order to thrive. But others see "the rise
of spin as a real problem for democracy because it masks transparency and
provides the public with distorted information" (How To Master Political Spin,
uniffors.com, October 11th, 2007). Ah, serious.
Anyways, when you see terms such as "spin doctor", "spin a yarn", "however
you spin it" you should know what they mean – a spin doctor, by the way, can be
anyone from a political adviser, press agent, spokesperson of a company to a
public relations expert.
Here are spinning examples from the media:
1. Selectively present facts and quotes that support your position.
Sometimes a spin doctor can manipulate the words of an adversary and come up
with a statement that ends up supporting the spin doctor's client. A good
example of this is Ms. X saying, "I admire Mr. Z, but he has made a terrible
error." The spin becomes, "Ms. X said today that she 'admires' Mr. Z."
- How to Master Political Spin, eHow.com.
2. The Mortal Kombat maker announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11
reorganization for its U.S. operations. In a press release, the company blamed
the move on a change in ownership that happened last fall. That change pushed
forward the deadline for Midway to pay off some of its debt, an obligation
"Midway anticipated it would be unable to satisfy," the company said in a
statement.
"This was a difficult but necessary decision," Matt Booty, holder of
Midway's hat trick of titles — president, chairman and CEO — said in the
statement.
Then, in one of the more humorous assertions ever from a company in such
straits, Booty put a positive spin on things: "Midway enters this process with
strong underlying fundamentals, as evidenced by solid fourth quarter sales that
exceeded expectations."
Right. The underlying fundamentals are so strong that the company is
seeking bankruptcy protection.
- Midway files for bankruptcy, blogs.mercurynews.com, February 12,
2009.
3. With the clock ticking down on his presidency, Bush and his aides used
his last day of public events before Inauguration Day to try to put a positive
spin on his record.
Farewell speeches are a ritual for departing U.S. leaders, but the stakes
are especially high for Bush, who will step down with one of the lowest public
approval ratings of any president in modern times – in the mid-20 percent
range.
In a final ceremony at the State Department earlier on Thursday, Bush
defended his foreign policy – from the unpopular war in Iraq to nuclear
standoffs with Iran and North Korea. "We have made the world freer," he
said.
- Bush defends troubled record in farewell address, Reuters, January 10,
2009.
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