Talk:Spin (propaganda)/Archives/2018

This is an archive of past discussions about Spin (propaganda). Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Cited in PNAS

A recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences actually cites this page for its definition of spin. I couldn't believe a reputable journal would publish something where a statement was sourced to Wikipedia (even if it was only one). Just a note to anyone interested in this article. Every morning (there's a halo...) 01:16, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

Etymology

I cut the etymology section. The "spinning a yarn" etymology seems to be based on parts of this Safire column, but: a) Safire only claims "perhaps influenced by 'to spin a yarn'", and in fact "based on the slang meaning of the verb to spin, which in the 1950's meant 'to deceive'"; b) he also seems to imply that 'spin' in the context of baseball pitching is derived from the same source. Surely he has it backwards, and (political) spin is a straightforward sports metaphor. By the time of the later column already referenced by this article, he focuses more directly on that comparison. --207.181.226.224 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 08:52, 16 September 2018 (UTC)