A New Direction for Spin

In today’s media environment, most major news stories are accompanied by healthy doses of spin.

This week, BP issued a 193-page report that attempts to shift much of the blame for the world’s biggest offshore spill to two other companies. Last month in New Jersey, when the state lost out on $400 million in federal education because of a clerical error on its application for the funds, Governor Christie attempted to turn the table and blame the Obama Administration for acting “like mindless drones” and not contacting state officials for the needed information.

Spin may be more prevalent today, but by no means is it new.

The Power of Song: How Protest Music Was Ahead of Mainstream Media

Forty years ago this week, Seymour Hersh broke the story of the My Lai massacre, in which hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers. Hersh later was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting, but he may have been scooped – not by another journalist, but by a then 20-year-old singer/songwriter named Arlo Guthrie.