I was recently described in print as a “spinmeister.”  I’ve been called worse, but it got me thinking about the nature of “spin,”especially as it applies to my profession.

“Spin” has become something of a pejorative, a euphemism for lying or covering up the truth. I don’t see it that way. To me, it simply means providing another side of the story. It doesn’t mean spinning a reporter as much as it means spinning the story around to reveal certain facts that the reporter doesn’t know about or is deliberately ignoring, facts that at a minimum provide greater context.

News stories are rarely black and white. They are usually complicated with several shades of grey. Unfortunately, reporters don’t like shades of grey. They prefer black hats and white hats. That’s a much easier story to understand and write. So they often come at a story with a preconceived notion. I know, reporters will deny this, but it’s true. Maybe an editor has given them an angle for the story to pursue or maybe they’ve jumped to a conclusion before gathering all the facts. Whatever, many reporters often have their minds made up when they come for an interview and don’t really want to listen to things that pull them away from their premise, things like basic facts.

After I entered public relations and my brother was still an editor at The Boston Globe, we had endless arguments on this very subject. I would complain about the press and he would staunchly defend reporters and journalism. Now he’s in PR. We don’t have this argument anymore. He knows exactly what I’m talking about.

I know because I’m guilty of similar offenses. When I was younger, I worked for Maine Times and later the Maine Sunday Telegram where I did a lot of in-depth and investigative stories. When I read some of those clips today, I cringe. I was so headstrong, sure of myself, righteous. You know, like Mike Tipping. If I wrote those stories today they would be more contextualized, more comprehensive, and maybe more boring. But like I said, life isn’t black and white.

One example: some years back I was hired by the National Soft Drink Association. The state of Maine was running TV ads against soda, blaming soda consumption for a rise in obesity rates. Now, I’m no fan of soda. Rarely drink it myself (except with rum), but at the time the ads were running there were no studies definitively linking soda with obesity.  Excess calories and lack of exercise cause obesity. Why pick on soda and not McDonald’s French Fries or Boston Crèmes at Dunkin Donuts?

Eventually the state backed down and rewrote the ads to take the blame off soda. They had to. There were just no facts to support them. But the reporters and some editorial writers covering the story weren’t impressed. Soda, for some reason, has become the new tobacco. Regardless of the evidence, they saw a link between soda consumption and the rise of obesity in Maine students. I pointed out that during the same period that obesity rates had risen, most Maine schools had done away with phys ed. Maybe that was the more significant link. If soda was the culprit, how come the captain of the football team drank a quart of Moutain Dew daily but didn’t have an ounce of fat on him? Maybe the cafeteria menu would be a better candidate for examination.

But they wouldn’t hear of it. Soda and soda in schools were the boogiemen. Editorials appeared saying schools should remove soda from the premises. I urged the writers to walk through Portland High School. There wasn’t any soda to be found. Most schools had already removed soda from vending machines, replacing it with water and fruit juice (which, by the way, often has more calories per ounce than soda). But no one took me up on the offer. To them, soda was the primary cause of obesity, and that was that.

So when reporters liken “spin” to trying to mislead them or not telling the whole story, I protest. Telling the whole story is exactly what I’m trying to do. Sometimes reporters just don’t want to hear it.

UPDATE: If you want to see a good example of what I'm talking about, check out Steve Jobs' news conference addressing the "problems" with the iPhone 4. The alleged antenna problems with the new iPhone gobbled up reams of newsprint and hours of airtime on national news programs. As Jobs explains, Apple's customers aren't complaining, and the reception problems with the iPhone 4 affect every smartphone on the market, and have for some time. So it he spinning, or merely providing facts that the news media have chosen to ignore?