THE SPIN, POLITICS OF DECEPTION AND YET ANOTHER ELECTION

Working as a feature editor, for a local publisher, I was often given assignments to profile business and industry. It was work. I couldn’t really turn it down. I needed the beer money, and oh yes, funds to pay my rent. I hated to write business features because they were so boring to research and wordsmith, into something that readers would consume. I got pretty good at making these business enterprises appear much more successful and prosperous than they actually were, at that point in time, seeing as at least a quarter of the subject businesses were on their last leg....so to speak. I had numerous occasions when I was asked to visit a business, as a last ditch attempt to save them as clients, or help them last another few weeks until they could pay their advertising account. About a month after doing these stories, most those same enterprises were closed and packing-up. A waste of time? Not to our advertising department.

Maybe I saved a few with my competently written feature stories.....but not many. An advertising staffer, told me once, a client had been in tears, while complimenting the stellar work I’d done on their published story. Well, for a split second, I felt great. While I had apparently hit the mark, and secured an advertising relationship with the subject business, it was impossible to be truly happy about the credit bestowed. I had spun a grand, compelling tale, about a wonderful, landmark business, but I’d been forced to use every trick in the wordsmithing profession, to make them look good. If I’d included the truth, that the business was actually on the brink of collapse, because they hadn’t been very good at their enterprise, how would that have been received by my bosses? While I fought with these upper-management types about news and editorial honesty, all the time, business features were to be tolerated and spun to keep ad content. “Without these advertisers Ted, you wouldn’t have a job.” They told me that every week.

I hated myself for capitulating but there weren’t a lot of writing jobs out there, and a lot of hungry rookie reporters rapping at the door.

The most memorable feature story, was one I did for a local restaurant that was, without my knowledge, on the verge of financial collapse. Apparently I was the cavalry and my feature story on their great food, was going to inspire a magnificent rise from the ashes. I went for a lunch, at my own expense (to sort of protect me from a conflict of interest.....accepting a free meal), and found it adequate. Not a smidgeon more. I must have been having a Hemingway moment, because when I got back to the office, I wrote one of the best reviews a restaurant (that’s not in Paris) could expect from the local rag. Even before it went to press, everyone who read the review, in the office, was eager to visit and try the incredible cuisine. When it was published, the owners were ecstatic, as you might imagine, and presumably made a deal to place many more advertisements.......such that I could keep my job and have a cool one (brew) now and again.

That feature story was very nearly my undoing as a writer. Due to my compelling argument, that all of the food lovers in the world, should visit this local dining-gem, I generated a huge new interest in this modestly proportioned, mediocre-at-best, hole-in-the-wall restaurant. First of all, let me make this clear. I am not an experienced food critic. At that point in my single life, I was having “chips and oyster sauce” sandwiches, when I had any food in my apartment at all. My culinary craft involved opening a can of tuna or beans, and grasping-up a spork. So when I suggested this small restaurant should be given five Michelin Stars, crap, I was in for a grounding like you wouldn’t believe. I’ve written many controversial articles over my career, but nothing could compare to the controversy I created by bestowing credit where it was not deserved.

You see, many folks attended that restaurant, and found that the writer, who had composed that prose, hadn’t been entirely truthful. After hour long waits for cold and tasteless food, and finding nothing remarkable in either the decor or location, (as I had represented better than it appeared), many unhappy diners took up the pen and phone, as soon as they got home. While the restaurant was happy with the business volume, for about a week, I had our ad department going nuts, with calls and letters about the numb-nuts reporter, who sent them to that “dreadful place.” It wasn’t exactly fan mail but I got lots of response to my work.

The point I’m trying to make here, is that with an election on the horizon, or several (provincial is this year as well), the spin masters will be out in full force. And every time I read the crap they produce, I think about the lesson learned, about the importance of being earnest, honest, and responsible to all concerns. What I read, and hear in the pre-election ads, reminds me just how bad it can get, when truth becomes inconvenient.......while down the road, truth becomes a very great burden. It bothered me for years, that the dishonesty of my story had worked for those with a vested interest but not for those who trusted my editorial integrity. When I criticize politicians today, fifty percent of the reason for my chagrin, is due to the positive spin they’ve placed on a negative situation or circumstance. Instead of being straightforward and honest about government business and initiatives, they believe it infinitely more important to fudge and embellish.....even though, as logical folks most of the time, they’re going to get burned when the truth finally prevails. It always does.

I’ve had a raging battle, recently, with those who wish to manipulate the media to satisfy their own self-serving interests and agendas. Their failure is usually always set in the same pattern. They start believing their own bullshit as being the correct version, to promote or protect themselves, or associates, and eventually they lose reality altogether. During the election there’s not much else than bullshit. Telling us about transparency and then when elected, offering no apology for cloaking everything they do thereafter. There’s an awfully big difference between a candidate for office, and an elected official. The candidate will promise the moon and deliver a sliver. The elected official will make excuses why the promises had to be broken, and deliver nary a quiver of the chin, turning and walking away with a grin.

I don’t know how the spin-masters out there can live with themselves. Apparently there’s lot of work around the world these days, for spin writers who can make a disaster look like a picnic, and a radiation quagmire, appear as nothing more than an inconvenience to mankind; little more than a pee on the grass as far as nature’s concerned. Truthfully, my own dark side immersion in “spinning” cost me a lot as a writer. Sure it paid for a dozen beer, some chips and more oyster sauce but as far as satisfaction......it was most definitely the point of departure. It was the last “good times were had by all” business story I’d write. From that point on, I wrote about their businesses honestly, and truthfully, blemishes and failures included, and while it annoyed the advertising department, it was accepted by the respective businesses themselves......as being relevant and timely.....the struggle to survive, the ups and downs, being part of the deal. They liked the new approach without embellishments. They didn’t want customers arriving at their doorstep with unrealistic expectations anyway. But there are some folks who need fiction and delusion in their daily diet. I can’t help these businesses.

When I hear and read what the political parties are farting-out these days, about their willingness to serve us better, and restore democracy, via greater transparency, I wonder how their writers can live with themselves......knowing the end-game is always the same. “We helped elect jerks!” And don’t think for a minute writers aren’t aware that their “spinning of the truth” is not in the best interests of democracy.....ever! But they need the money. Been there! Regretted every moment of it!

My advice, read between the lines. Especially in election advertising and speeches. Put your bullshit detector on!