Spinning is the name, lying is the game

My first blog in a week...

I just got home from Michigan. The trip was good, fairly stressful, since I was in a wedding. Being involved in weddings takes work, mainly just running around. It can be difficult when you show up only 2 days before the wedding though. Everything ran smoothly however.

And now for something completely different.

I'm feeling the need to have a bone to pick with the media, news in particular.

Spin Doctors is the name, spinning is the game... or lying, whatever you want to call it.

From Wikipedia:

Spin Doctor: "Skilled practitioners of spin."

Spin: "In public relations, spin is a usually pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation. While traditional public relations may also rely on creative presentation of the facts, "spin" often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics."

The techniques of "spin" include:
-Selectively presenting facts and quotes that support one's position (cherry picking)
-Non-denial denial
-Phrasing in a way that assumes unproven truths
-Euphemisms to disguise or promote one's agenda

Another spin technique involves careful choice of timing in the release of certain news so it can take advantage of prominent events in the news.

Now that we are on the same page as far as the definition of spin and spin doctors, I shall continue my rant.

This past week has been full of news of schools, children and related events.

The one I am particularly interested in is Congressman Foley, a (I hate to say it) fellow Floridian.

In this case, his spin doctor is his lawyer, David Roth. For those of you who aren't familiar with Foley, he recently resigned after news of sexually explicit emails and messages to male teenage pages were made known.

The spinning? Well first Foley was going to rehab because he was an alcoholic. Come on folks, I don't care how drunk you are, it isn't going to change your sexual preference, whether gender or age based and certainly not both. Not to mention that this happened on several occasions, not a one time lax in judgment.

Next? Well now he was abused by a clergyman as a teen. I do not condone this and it certainly is a shame if it's true, BUT (you knew it was coming) being abused doesn't make you an abuser.

Then news of his "homosexuality" has been confirmed. Big deal, so he's gay. All this scandal because he likes his own gender sexually? And he is a Republican? This is ridiculous.

Every killer, sexual deviant, sexual predator, bank robber, speeder has reasons for what they are doing, perhaps even long-term, deep-seated issues that causes them to do what they do. But they still get in trouble for it.

We know that people do things for reasons, perhaps even reasons that are understandable, commendable, pitiable... but wrong is still wrong.

I certainly wasn't alive at the time, but 50-100 years ago, bad was just bad. Evil was evil. There were no diagnoses for deviant behavior, whether behavioral, sexual or criminal. Bad was just bad. There were no reasons behind it.

There was nothing to sympathize with.

Is the world better or worse for it?

Has sympathy made our world safer or more dangerous?