I've long admired the skill, the suave and the sheer skulduggery spin doctors put to use. Yes, I wanted to use skulduggery in a sentence, get over it. I even remember how me and one of college seniors fancied becoming one. Considering how often Indian politicians and industry leaders put their foots in their mouths, it'd bring in good money too, but that's for some other day.
There was this fairly good TV series called Burn Notice. It was about an FBI agent called Michael Westen who is 'burned' without prior notice. Which means FBI has frozen his funds and has cut any ties with him. So, every time he was caught in a bad spot or being interrogated, Matt repeated this old mantra, 'Deny Everything, Accept Nothing'. I found it a little like a self-help book cliche but I couldn't deny that there was some virtue in it.
Fast forward to some 5 odd years later. The Brit PM has been caught in the #PigGate scandal that makes Bill Clinton's problems a weekend getaway in Hawaii. Guardian got one of his former spokesperson/spin doctors to spill the beans on what the new team did not do right. And he said they were too late in sharing a positive response but they got every word right when they said,'they would not dignify the book’s claims with a response.'
And that's it. So simple, so misleading, with so much room for doubt. Maybe spy TV series can teach you a thing or two about being a spin doctor.
There was this fairly good TV series called Burn Notice. It was about an FBI agent called Michael Westen who is 'burned' without prior notice. Which means FBI has frozen his funds and has cut any ties with him. So, every time he was caught in a bad spot or being interrogated, Matt repeated this old mantra, 'Deny Everything, Accept Nothing'. I found it a little like a self-help book cliche but I couldn't deny that there was some virtue in it.
Fast forward to some 5 odd years later. The Brit PM has been caught in the #PigGate scandal that makes Bill Clinton's problems a weekend getaway in Hawaii. Guardian got one of his former spokesperson/spin doctors to spill the beans on what the new team did not do right. And he said they were too late in sharing a positive response but they got every word right when they said,'they would not dignify the book’s claims with a response.'
And that's it. So simple, so misleading, with so much room for doubt. Maybe spy TV series can teach you a thing or two about being a spin doctor.
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