A New Spin Style

I like listening to arguments of the powers that be, not for content, but for style.  There is a new method of spin used by the powers that be.  It is developed by rhetoricians, and then wholesaled to the minions who create spin for public officials.

The tropes are easy enough to "hear" but hard to spot or wrap one's brain around.  This particular one probably originated with Bill Clinton, but he is a such an extraordinary liar he was hard to spot.  I listened to Christine Gregoire, governor of Washington, use it inexpertly, and so she gave away the game.  Here she says she is suffering and blames the voters.   She should have said she was suffering and say "voters know best."

Let's move on to an excellent example.

Mish Shedlock quotes an article on Bill Gross, of Pimco, who is certainly a leading public figure.

"When you're underperforming the index, you go home at night and cry in your beer," the Financial Times, in its online edition, quoted Gross as saying. "It's not fun, but who said this business should be fun. We're too well paid to hang our heads and say boo hoo."

Gross, who oversees $1.2 trillion at PIMCO, said it was "pretty obvious" he wishes he had more Treasuries in his portfolio right now.

"I get that it was my/our mistake in thinking that the U.S. economy can chug along at 2 per cent real growth rates. It doesn't look like it can."

Now note... Gross is a billionaire from investing other people's money.  His pay is tied to performance.  His specialty is bonds.  His spin is "I suffer..."  and then mixed with "I make a lot of money..."

The first part is unapparent, the second part is quite apparent.  In the first part, it is those who pay him fantastic amounts of money are the ones who suffer by his actions, not he himself.  So he embraces their pain pretending it is his.  Then he links it to the obvious fact, that he has a fantastic income.

The result is he escapes responsibility for his actions.  Since he too has ostensibly also suffered, he is as much a victim as anyone else.  And he makes so much money because he suffers as much as anyone else.  The spin is inherently untrue, but a beautiful piece of rhetoric.

This will be in fashion for a few years, until people spot it, as when a politician says "it's for the children..." and everyone now winces, where once that worked.

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