Staying a step ahead of campaign spin doctors

The most effective way to innoculate yourself from political spin is to try to be at least as up to speed on the issues of the day as the person feeding you the party line.

That entails effort on the part of the reporter, but I’ve found that the best political journalists tend to be well-read and well-connected. If an operative from Party X is spinning you about a new scheme to attract widget manufacturers to Canada it helps if you actually have some understanding of the industry from reading newspapers, magazines, specialized publications, and websites. A cursory glance at Wikipedia or a quickie Google search is not adequate research and smart spin doctors—and many of them are very clever, though some are almost as dim as the reporters they outwit—prey on lazy journalists.

The most effective way to innoculate yourself from political spin is to try to be at least as up to speed on the issues of the day as the person feeding you the party line.

That entails effort on the part of the reporter, but I’ve found that the best political journalists tend to be well-read and well-connected. If an operative from Party X is spinning you about a new scheme to attract widget manufacturers to Canada it helps if you actually have some understanding of the industry from reading newspapers, magazines, specialized publications, and websites. A cursory glance at Wikipedia or a quickie Google search is not adequate research and smart spin doctors—and many of them are very clever, though some are almost as dim as the reporters they outwit—prey on lazy journalists.