Why Spin Is Good for Democracy

[Commentary] Between the State of the Union address and the Jan 14 Republican debate, and with the primary season around the corner, this week may well mark “peak spin” for the 2016 campaign. For many, this blizzard of January spin prompts a yearning for a more authentic politics, free of Washington cant. Yet all the distortion involved in modern spin, the thrust and parry of competing arguments are vital to democracy, and a big part of what gets us interested and engaged in the first place.

The whirlwind of spin this week also shows that, in a democracy, spin is almost always met with abundant counterspin. A lot of it may be vacuous, but we’re not — despite our frustrations — in a totalitarian society of Orwellian Newspeak. The theatricality and combativeness on display in the Spin Room — and the animated chatter ricocheting across the TV studios and Twitter feeds — are more likely to pique citizens’ political interest than are antiseptic or Olympian declarations that purport to tell us all we need to know. Instead of trying to banish spin from the kingdom of politics, we’d be better off nurturing in ourselves and our neighbors the critical sense that allows us to question and evaluate spin — and maybe, just once in a while, to know when to enjoy it.

[David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers]