In his 2008-09-09 post entitled “Spin”, Seth Godin says:
I think there’s a huge opportunity for a trusted media source that takes on spin from all quarters and throws it back in the face of the spinner. (link)
I wonder whether it’s humanly possible to be spin-free. Granted there’s such a thing as deliberate, deceitful spin, and that it is in principle possible for all people to eschew that. But where is the dividing line between “spinning” something and “presenting it as I interpret it from within my world-view”?
In other words, bias is an inseparable companion to different world-views, one person’s honest “as I see the truth” is another person’s nauseatingly biased spin.
Shall we define “spin” as a conscious biasing of presented fact? Well, if I’m aware of multiple ways of interpreting something, and choose to present the most persuasive case possible for the interpretation I believe is sound (i.e., resonates with my world-view and preconceptions), that’s conscious… So is it “spin”?
