Stuck in the Spin Cycle

Notice the term for the spinners: "Advo-casters".

Stuck in the Spin Cycle, by Peter Funt.

Rhetorical spinning used to be good sport.

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Nowadays, though, we’re stuck in a constant spin cycle ...

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The Internet, cable-TV, talk radio, all provide forums for differing voices to publish and be heard. In theory, this broadened exposure to wide ranging perspectives makes us better informed and more receptive to opposing points of view. Yet, just the opposite is happening. In many respects, what’s referred to as the digital information explosion has proved to be a time bomb.

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During the hostile health care debate, if you watched Fox News Channel and MSNBC side by side, you’d have thought they were covering entirely different stories.

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It’s even worse on radio. Advo-casters, some of whom host both radio and TV shows, tend to spin more recklessly when it’s audio only. Radio rants are frequently more outrageous and blatantly biased, yet, despite vast audiences, go largely unheard by those with opposing views.

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When you freeze the frames on our media and our politics, it’s difficult to tell which is currently exerting the greatest spin on the other. Media have become more fractionalized and focused on singular points of view. Politicians and their supporters have grown intolerant and less inclined to compromise. Conventional media whose goals, at least in theory, are to provide generally spin-free perspectives, are suffering. The evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC; the entire CNN cable network; magazines such as Time and Newsweek, and most general-interest newspapers, are losing out to competitors who specialize in spin. Today, the hottest blogs, radio shows, and cable-TV channels are those for which fact is merely a starting point.

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