Understanding spin tactics

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to "grill" a politician.

POLITICIAN: Politicians have a tough job. They must convince the public that their position on the issues is the correct one. They have to be persuasive; they have to get the public to believe that they are trustworthy and know exactly what they are talking about. How do they do this? Some use this strategy.

POLITICIAN1: Spin. Many politicians are experts at spinning the facts in a way that makes them look better ... I'm not saying they all do it ... but if you want to get the public on your side, it's good to have some communication strategies. It's not lying ... Okay, some people think spin techniques are deceptive. My advice?

POLITICIAN2: Learn how to recognize these techniques. Then you'll know when the politicians are spinning the facts, and you'll be able to make a more intelligent decision about what they're saying. Here are the spin tactics you should learn to recognize. Spin Tactic Number 1: Ambiguous speech. An ambiguous sentence is a sentence which would have two different meanings.

POLITICIAN3: Now, politicians use ambiguous language to avoid having to say something that some people might not want to hear. Imagine that a politician says this: "I oppose taxes which are bad for the economy!" There are two ways to interpret that sentence. Either he opposes all taxes, since they're bad for the economy, or he opposes only taxes that are bad for the economy. Get it?

POLITICIAN4: It's pretty clever. And a politician knows that people who are listening will interpret the statement the way they want to hear it. Spin Tactic Number 2: Cherry picking. Just as a farmer will pick the best cherries from the tree, a politician will select only the facts and quotes which support his argument. Cigarette companies in the past used to love this strategy... They would carefully select doctors who would say cigarettes were not bad for you... But of course all the other hundreds of doctors were of a different opinion.

POLITICIAN5: And here's an example of how politicians use this strategy. Politician number one says: "I admire Mr. Brown, but he has made a terrible mistake." Politician number two says: "Ms Green said today that she 'admires' Mr. Brown." See how Mr. Brown carefully selected only the part of the quote which he wanted people to know about? Of course, it's much harder to do this in the age of the Internet when anyone could easily look up Ms Green's quote to find out what she really said. Spin Tactic Number 3: Non denial-denial.

POLITICIAN6: Non denial-denial is a term for a way of denying something without actually denying anything. It's a very tricky strategy. Here's an example: "I have no plans to raise taxes." If a politician says "I will not raise taxes" he could get in trouble later when he does raise taxes. But if he says, "I have no plans to raise taxes"... well, later he could just say that at that point in time he didn't plan to raise taxes ... therefore, he didn't break any promises.

POLITICIAN7: Spin Tactic Number 4: Speak in the passive. A politician can avoid taking direct responsibility for an error by cleverly using the passive voice. Politicians don't like to admit they make mistakes. "I made a mistake!" Or, "I really messed up"... or, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault!"

POLITICIAN8: Instead, they'll say ... "Mistakes were made." The passive voice takes out the person ... so you don't actually say who performed the action. Instead of saying, "I made mistakes", the politician can say, "Mistakes were made." This way, he doesn't actually have to accept the blame for these mistakes. That's a really clever way to spin the information so it doesn't reflect so badly on him.

POLITICIAN9: Politicians will always use communication strategies to help them 'spin' the facts in their favor ... so my recommendation: learn how they do it. That way, you can recognize when the truth is being manipulated to a politician's advantage... Or, if you have political aspirations... you could even learn to do it yourself.