Some examples of extreme SPIN strategies: --- According to Fritz, Keefer & Nyhan, the Bush White House made (at that time) “unprecedented use of professionalized, strategic DISHONESTY to sell his proposals” using five major strategies to SPIN the press and the public, manipulate perceptions (“borrowed from the world of Public Relations”) IN ORDER TO DISTORT THE TRUTH & DECEIVE, distract and mislead the public subtly to promote his policies through well-designed phrases:

1. “Made a few claims that are factually incorrect”;

2. “Used frequently unrepresentative examples presenting them a typical”;

3. “Made claims that rely on questionable information or offered assertions that go far beyond the available evidence”;

4. “Attacked those who raised questions in an attempt to quash or discredit legitimate dissent”, and

5. Made “strategic use of language to imply controversial conclusions or outright untruths he wouldn’t dare state publicly”, using “ambiguos statements that implied what Bush did not want to state outright”.

As “the President and his top aides knew or should have known to be false or misleading at the time they made a public statement”, Fritz, Keefer & Nyhan consider such systematic “dishonest strategies in nearly every major public policy debate” “is a fundamental BETRAYAL OF THE public TRUST” in a democracy.

Fritz, Ben, Bryan Keefer and Brendan Nyhan, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S SPIN. George W. Bush, the Media, and the Truth, A Touchstone Book, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2004.

Source author: Eric Suzán Reed esuzan@sre.gob.mx