1 Boring Old Man

In the endless battle against spin, Prospect had a statistician compare the ‘indian giving’ of the Abramoff client tribes to Democrats and Republicans before and after he became involved with them. The results are what everyone ought to know by now, how the spin works. Rove always starts with the conclusion he wants to convey, then he looks at the facts and finds a wording that might lead to this desired conclusion.

Desired Conclusion: Abramoff’s scandal is not a Republican Scandal.

Fact to use: The tribes gave to both parties.

Ergo: Fact -> Desired Conclusion 

Truth: This is a Republican scandal. Abramoff diverted a lot of money into the hands of Republican Congressmen, in return for specific favors [as in bribes].

How has it worked, Rove’s method? Very well, unfortunately.

There’s another ingredient, the Press. The spun story makes the front pages. The counter makes places like the Prospect Web Site, and a bunch of blogs read by people who already knew that this was standard Karl Rove spin. The mass readers hear only the spin, not the analysis that proves it wrong. One further ingredient gets overlooked. He doesn’t counter the counter. He ignores it, thereby letting things die. That last part isn’t working as well as it used to. Here’s a link to the war over the Media spin about Abramoff. Unfortunately, it’s a war with the Washington Post instead of the White House.

Swiftboating was a prime example of spin. It plastered the news – Kerry was no war hero. He faked his injuries. That isn’t the truth, but it had the same impact as the truth. The defense against criticism is similar. Bush "proudly served" in the National Guard, and ignore the critics. The latter part of the formula is a relatively bold twist – just ignore any criticism no matter how factual, and attack the critic, as in Joseph Wilson.