What is Spin?

Spin…. What is spin? Well, spin is a lot of things. For instance spin can be what reporters, editors, or journalists put on a story to give it an edge. The edge could be in favor of the subject, against the subject.  A spin could also give the news a  liberal  or conservative point of view . News is supposed to be "just the facts."  Spinning the news means that a story carries more than just the facts.  Sometimes spin happens even if a reporter doesn’t mean for it to happen. The reporters opinions about the world determine the way they observe and report events.

Spin is different from gossip.  Spin is also different from libel or slander.  A reporter must be honest and truthful when reporting, but sometimes spin is what is NOT included in a report, too.  If a person doesn't hear both sides of the story, they may be uninformed.  If this is done intentionally to give people a certain idea about the facts, then it is spin.

Sometime spin isn’t anyone's fault, it just happens. To really understand how this kind of news spin works, try playing telephone. It might start out as "Today is a beautiful day" and it might end up as "I like playing in the hay."