Interpretation....a glass half full or half empty......
31 July 2013
.. yes have all heard that one, it is a matter of interpretation and attitude.
.. yes have all heard that one, it is a matter of interpretation and attitude.
The art of spin is also about interpretation and often misrepresenting attitude while doing so.
We had this recent example was where the BBC bosses attacked a respected journalist over a programme being 'too right wing' whereas the story is really about the inbuilt left wing bias of the BBC and their slapping down of a journalist who stepped outside their left orientated editorial policy.
Another more interesting one is about a CBI survey that showed three quarters of CBI members were in favour of an EU referendum. So far so good. It went on though, to claim that most were in favour of our staying in the EU. This is not quite accurate - they were saying that the current relationship with the EU needed renegotiation and would want to stay in after such successful renegotiations, in that context, they were spun as being in favour of remaining in. The really interesting story is what would happen if we were not to get a satisfactory renegotiation of our relationship with the EU. Would they still be in favour of staying in? I suspect not. Indeed I would be in favour of staying in if a renegotiated relationship was one I would consider acceptable - not a likely outcome.
Often the interesting bit of a story is what is not said.... I spend a lot of time every day interpreting figures and trying to work out what they are really saying....
- that's right about the u.k. negotiating with the eu and being shafted every time. currently the main players i.e. germany and france are planning to repatriate powers back to member states and we can feel sure they will be more successful than us.
- Don't kow Barry, I always drink the lot!
Is not the interrelationship of the member states to their EU club under constant re-evaluation? Is not the present state of affairs something that has been negotiated over time, by both the Red and the Blue?
There is a scene in 'The Simpsons Movie', where the pragmatic paterfamilias Homer, while revelling in his escape from danger, is none too happy with the view of the road ahead and decides it is better to lay a tourist poster scene over his wind-shield, "Ah, that's better!" He sighs...with the inevitable result.
So...I suspect that the lesson here is;should the level of the contents of your glass be unseemly to your eye, paint upon the glass the scene you'd rather be looking at, BUT whatever you do, don't then spin it.