SPIN DOCTOR

noun (Politics) In the jargon of US politics, a senior political spokesperson employed to promote a favourable interpretation of events to journalists; a politician's flak. Etymology: Formed by compounding. In US politics, spin is interpretation, the bias or slant put on information when it is presented to the public or in a press conference; all information can have a positive or negative spin. This in turn is a sporting metaphor, from the spin put on the ball, for example by a pitcher in baseball. Doctor comes from the various figurative uses of the verb doctor (ranging from 'patch up, mend' to 'falsify'), perhaps under the influence of play doctor 'a writer employed to improve someone else's play'. History and Usage: The phrase spin doctor was first used in print in October 1984 in an editorial in the New York Times about the aftermath of the televised debate between US presidential candidates Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale: A dozen men in good suits and women in silk dresses will circulate smoothly among the reporters, spouting confident opinions. They won't be just press agents trying to impart a favorable spin to a routine release. They'll be the Spin Doctors, senior advisers to the candidates. The term started to crop up quite frequently in political journalism in the mid eighties, and became a real buzzword during 1988. It is used both in relation to electoral campaigns and of other events, such as top-level international summits and disarmament negotiations. There is only a subtle distinction between the job of the flak and that of the spin doctor: the former tries to turn negative publicity, criticism, or failure to advantage, while the latter is trying to impart the right spin from the outset, so that there is no damage limitation exercise to be done. The activity of a spin doctor is spin doctoring. We were treated to the insights of Elliott Abrams,...the administration's most versatile spin doctor on Nicaraguan affairs. Maclean's 2 Apr. 1990, p. 11 The resultant emphasis on the British end of things is more than so much 'spin doctoring'. Delaware Today July 1990, p. 76