Public Relations Review, 20( 1):19-27 Copyright 0 1994 by JAI Press Inc.

ISSN: 0363.8111 All rights ofreproduction in any form reserved.

The Spin Doctor:

Randy Sumpter An Alternative Model
and James W.
Tankard, Jr. of Public Relations
ABSTRACT: The past 10 or so years have seen the emergence of
a new phenomenon in communication-the so-called spin doctor.
What is a spin doctor? What does a spin doctor do?
This article suggests that the spin doctor is a new communication
role, and raises questions about its relationship to the traditional
public relations model. It also discusses the implications ofthis new
role for mass communication theory and for the practice of
journalism.
Randy Sumpter is an assistant instructor and James W. Tankard,
Jr., is a professor at the Department of Journalism, University of
Texas at Austin.

What is a spin doctor? What does a spin doctor do? Is the

term just a catch phrase used by the mass media, along with similar phrases such as
“sound bite” and “photo op”? The phrase appeared on the 1989 list of overused
words and phrases issued annually by Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste.
Marie, Michigan,’ and Matt Groening included it in a list of forbidden words for
1993 in his “Life in Hell” cartoon.2 Or does it refer to a genuinely new communica-
tion role with unusual potential for manipulating the media, and, in turn, the public?
This article looks at the “spin doctor” phenomenon and attempts to answer the
following questions:

1. What is a spin doctor?

2. What does a spin doctor do?

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 Public Relations Review

3. Who are the spin doctors?

4. What are the effects of spin doctoring?

5. What is the relationship between spin doctoring and traditional public

relations?
6. What are the implications of the spin doctor phenomenon for some
areas of communication theory?

ORIGIN OF THE TERM

Safire suggests the term “spin doctor” is based on the slang

meaning of the verb “to spin.“3 He believes the term originated in the 1950s when
“spin” sometimes meant to deceive as in “to spin a yam.” Safire and others draw the
obvious connection with sports terminology: putting spin on a billiard ball, tennis
ball, or baseball to make it go in a certain direction. Image-makers and advertisers
have long known how to put a favorable spin or angle on a story, he concludes.
Specter agrees with the sports analogy and calls spin in the political arena “the blatant
art of bending the tr~th.“~
The etymology of the term implies that, while the term isn’t new, reporting about
it is.5
According to Metter, the concepts of spin and spin doctors fit an advertising or
public relations model and are an important component of image making. Publicists
use several devices to blur the distinction between editorial content and advertise-
ments to give ads a “journalistic spin.“6 These devices include advertorials, long-copy
advertisements that mimic news articles; legitimate news stories that “puff’ a prod-
uct, company, or service; “blurb abuse,” the practice of using a favorable quote from
a film or book critic in a promotion; and long broadcast commercials like FNN’s six-
part series on financial planning. Metter speculates that the media’s recent preoccu-
pation with reporting the activities of spin doctors follows a shift from the premium
formerly placed on information in the news to entertainment.
Maltese traces the genesis of “spin control” to the White House Office of
Communications during the Nixon presidency. ’ Presidents Ford and Carter also
used the office’s “spin” abilities in an attempt to manage their image problems.
Reagan’s spin doctors paid more attention to broadcast media. They wove appealing
sound bites into his televised addresses in an effort to manage what appeared on the
nightly network news broadcasts.
One source noted before a Bush-Gorbachev summit in 1990 that to White House
spin doctors “manipulating expectations is as automatic as breathing.“8
Spin doctors also operate in the entertainment field, where movie publicists
“operate in the slick new tradition of political handlers, whose job is to reduce a
campaign to photo ops and sound bites, keep their candidates away from rancorous
reporters and try, ever so discretely, to manage the news.“9
Spin doctoring also occurs in the travel promotion field. The American Travel
Marketing Executives held a workshop in 1990 on how to market tourism after a

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 ?he Spin Doctor: An Alternative Model of Public Relations

hurricane, earthquake, or oil spill. One tourism booster was quoted as saying, “A
hurricane is just a thunderstorm on steroids.“iO

WHO ARE THE SPIN DOCTORS?

Who the spin doctors are isn’t a secret. Before the 1992
presidential debates, U.S. News 0 World Report offered its readers a line-up of each
candidate’s spin doctors: The Republicans would use Budget Director Richard
Darman, party pollster Robert Teeter, and campaign director James Baker; the
Democrats would use Clinton strategist James Carville, consultant Robert Squier,
and media adviser Frank Greer; Perot would be his own spin doctor. The magazine
also offered examples of the spin doctors’ past successes, including Baker’s pro-
nouncement after the 1984 Mondale-Reagan debate that “Even if we did as poorly
as a draw, we won.“”
Master “spin doctors,” such as New York City publicist John Scanlon, who has
counted the politically and commercially powerful among his friends for years, may use
unconventional methods.” Scanlon worked in the Eugene McCarthy campaign;
Mayor John Lindsay appointed him a deputy commissioner to New York City’s
Economic Development Administration; and he worked as a public relations repre-
sentative for investment banker Felix Rohatyn. Scanlon also cultivates powerful media
contacts through a variety of methods, including a weekly Long Island softball game
with Morton Zuckerman, publisher of K5e Atlantic and U.S. News & World Report;
John Leo, a U.S. Newscolumnist; Walter Issacson, a Timewriter; magazine designer
Walter Bernard; and journalists Carl Bernstein, Richard Reeves, and Ken Auletta.
Scanlon undermines an unfavorable story by underscoring excerpts that he considers
unbalanced and sending it to the reporter, by calling on his powerful friends in the
media, and by mailing lengthy “press releases” to a list of what Scanlon calls opinion-
forming elites. This list includes magazine and newspaper editors, quotable academics,
journalists, politicians, and business people. Scanlon’s aim is to persuade the “people
who control not only what gets printed or talked about over the air, but what gets
whispered as well. ‘I’m a firm believer in the power of gossip,’ Scanlon says.“13
While they may come from the political left or right, master spin doctors share the
same assets. They are personally acquainted with media superstars, can hone their
message to a single, quotable slogan, and know how to repeatedly flood media
channels with that message. These skills and connections give the best spin doctors a
sort of “institutional power” that remains even after a political administration
changes. l4 Cooper quotes Eric Alterman as identifying New York City attorney
Leonard Garment as one of the master spin doctors.15 Garment was a colleague of
Richard Nixon’s at the Mudge Rose law firm and worked in the Nixon White
House. Different administrations have retained him to insure Senate confirmations
or to rehabilitate the images ofpolitical appointees accused ofwrongdoing. Garment’s
friends include media superstars Safire, McGrory, Pincus, and Sawyer. He know how
to set up an interview with Barbara Walters and has Ben Bradlee’s personal phone
number.“j

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WHAT DO SPIN DOCTORS DO?

Spin doctors, whether in advertising or press relations, use

some of the same approaches to image-building tasks. Walcott likened the favorable
selling of then President Bush’s 1992 State of the Union Address to the techniques
Pepsico Inc. used to sell its new advertising slogan, “Gotta have it!”

The White House orchestrated “structured leaks” of some good news in advance
of Bush’s speech; Pepsi started running a teaser commercial on January 12. The
lobbyists had lined up congressional leaders to comment favorably after the
speech; Pepsi bought endorsements from celebrities and hired “Entertainment
Tonight” anchors John Tesh and Leeza Gibbons to “report” that the slogan
“Gotta Have It” is sweeping the land.”

Walsh reports that press advisors in the 1984 campaign ritualized the “spin
patrol.“l* Partisans would patrol their media contacts immediately after a debate and
sell a “favorable spin” for their candidate’s performance. After one of the Bush-
Clinton debates, Walsh criticized candidates’ spin patrols for rigging the free market-
place of ideas. He noted that the spin patrols were armed with “attack lines,” which
he described as “memorable and entertaining if not entirely true” and “perfect for
the nightly news. “19 Writing on the same activity, Specter criticized spin doctors for
pursuing reporters into the press room after a 1992 debate.20 He called them
“political henchmen, the minders and puppeteers who make their living by calling
the Titanic the Love Boat.. . . “2’
Media commentators often portray spin doctors as toiling to reverse poor marks in
public opinion polls following a government scandal. During the Iran-Contra
scandal, for example, then-White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan:

appeared on Good Morning America at 7 a.m., met with three dozen reporters
over breakfast at 7:30 a.m., briefed a group of columnists and TV commentators
at 10 a.m., talked to network reporters at 1 p.m., took questions from radio
reporters at 4:30, and was interviewed by NRC’s Tom Brokaw at 5:30. He
closed the day with an interview with the New York Times....22

THE SPIN DOCTOR CONCEPTION OF

TRUTH

One way that spin doctors approach the concept of truth is

to maintain that every issue has two sides. This position is often taken by spin doctors
for unpopular clients. For instance, Brennan Dawson, a spokeswoman for The
Tobacco Institute in Washington, has said that people will ask her how she can do
what she does, and her answer is that “there are always two points of view.“23
Another view of the truth taken by spin doctors is that truth is relative. This

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 The Spin Doctor: An Altewaative Model of Public Relations

position is presented by Scanlon in the following exchange with Adam Smith on the
television show “Adam Smith’s Money World”:

SMITH: You’ve been described as a spin doctor. What is a spin doctor?

SCANLON: I think that what you do when you try to spin a reporter’s
consciousness or their attention, is to get them to look away from what they’re
focused on to what you think in fact is more important.

SMITH: Well, given a choice, do you serve your client or the truth?
SCANLON: You always try-you always serve the truth. But again-the truth is
often, you know, is often not necessarily a solid. It can be a liquid. I mean,
what’s-

SMITH: What does that mean?

SCANLON: What seems to be true is not necessarily the case when we look at it
and we dissect it and we take it apart, and we turn it around and we look at it
from a different perspective.24

SPIN DOCTORS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

Most public relations professionals would probably like to

distance what they do from the activities of spin doctors. Edward L. Bernays, one of
the “fathers” of public relations, has criticized political “operatives” and “lobbyists”
and argues that they are not really practicing public relations.25 Much of the activity
he criticized seems to be what spin doctors do.
On the other hand, however, another public relations journal ran a piece on John
Scanlon in which they referred to him as “the public relations man to have at the
h&n26

The spin doctor or spin control model and the traditional public relations model
differ on a number of dimensions, including goals, media used, typical clients,
common tools, communication techniques, orientations to the public, breadth of
appeal, approaches to ethics, and concern with self-image. Some comparisons
between the spin doctor approach and the traditional public relations approach are
provided in Table 1.

EFFECTS OF SPIN DOCTORS

Some political analysts have expressed doubt about the effect

of spin doctors. Before the vice presidential debate in 1988, Adam Clymer, political
editor at the New York Times, said, “I’m not sure the public pays quite as much
attention to all these efforts that campaigns make to set expectations.“27 Whether

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 Public Relations Review

TABLE 1

Comparison of Two Models of Public Relations

The Traditional The “Spin Control”

Public Relations Moakl OY “Spin Doctmn Model

Goals Active-presenting the Reactive-attempting to deal with

“corporate story” in the best negative turns of events; “brush-
possible light, attempting to fire control”; sometimes pre-
head off prospective emptive, attempting to move
difficulties. before the opposition.
Media Uses traditional media- Uses new technology-facsimile
speeches, print, television, transmission, cellular telephones.
photographs.

Clients Typically corporations, can be Typically politicians, government

politicians or government. officials, parties involved in court
cases, sometimes entertainers or
sports teams.

Tools Stresses direct PR tools-news Stresses indirect PR tools-

releases, press conferences, contacts with editors and publish-
speeches, corporate advertising. ers, the “weekly softball game,”
visiting reporters in the press
room.

Communication Tend to be general-writing, Tend to be specific-the 30.

Techniques speaking, counseling others in second sound bite; talking points
their communication. (points to get into the news today);
“Good news, then bad news”
deliverv.

Orientation Stresses “mutual interests” of Stresses getting the client’s

to Public corporation or government interpretation of events into the
and public. media.

Breadth of Appeal Targeting specific “publics.” Flooding media channels with the
client’s message (often in the form
of a particular frame or spin).

Approach to Ethics Stress on being ethical and Stress on unorthodox methods that
“truthful.” get the job done; concept of truth
as “liquid.”

Concern with Preoccupied with becoming a Attempt to achieve low visibility,

self-image “respected profession,” denial of being “spin doctors.”
concerned about being seen
as ethical.

spin doctors have effects and what kinds of effects they have may not be so simple
questions, however.
The spin doctor phenomenon may have some implications for several areas of
communication theory, including agenda-setting and the powerful effects model.

24 Vol. 20, No. 1

 The Spin Doctor An Alternative Model of Public Rehtiom

An important question still unanswered with regard to agenda-setting is who or

what sets the agenda for the press. 28 Spin doctors certainly try to influence the press’s
agenda. They also try to be the first to frame an issue or an event.29 McCombs notes
that agenda-setting takes place not only with regard to selection of topics for the
news agenda, but also with regard to frames for stories about those topics.30 The spin
doctor may play a key role in determining those frames.
The trend in mass communication theory seems to be somewhat away from
powerful effects models. 3’ But the spin doctors could be operating at a crucial
leverage point that yields some strong effects on mass communication, with that
point being the instant at which news is defined and framed.
The functioning of spin doctors also has some implications for discussions of
journalistic objectivity. The largest threat to the objectivity of journalism may come
not from the subjectivity of the individual journalist, which has often been the focus
ofconcem, but from professional spin doctors attempting to influence the newsmaking
process at its very core.

THE PRESS AND SPIN DOCTORS

Many members of the press may need to consider whether

they operate too much as adjuncts for spin doctors. Miller has attributed Ronald
Reagan’s success as a popular and strong-appearing president to “Reagan’s team of
White House spin doctors, a naive public and an unprobing and too-cozy press.“32
In other cases, the press may find itself dependent on powerful spin doctors who
also control access to stories. McDaniel and Fineman report that Gen. Norman
Schwartzkopf used 23 minutes worth of video from successful airstrikes and other
upbeat comments during a Desert Storm press conference to cushion a later
announcement that 12 Marines had been killed.33 The result was equal billing for the
“good” and “bad” stories during evening news broadcasts. McDaniel and Fineman
said the press conference tactic was planned by White House, Pentagon, State
Department, and CIA officials, who gathered daily during the war to plot a positive
administration spin for the coming news cycle.
The most effective spin doctors are those who serve as a nexus for government,
business, and the media.34 They are able to move ideas and messages from a variety of
sources across media frontiers, a process that Turow calls linking pin activities.35
Turow said the prevalence of these “transmedia impulses” illustrates the need to
study how political, economic, cultural, organizational, and industrial cross-currents
can simultaneously push certain subjects through the newswork process of several
types of media outlets.

CONCLUSIONS

The term “spin doctor” does appear to be more than a catch

phrase-there is evidence it refers to a genuinely new communication role. The role differs

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 Public Relations Review

from that of the traditional public relations practitioner by putting greater stress on
personal contacts with the media, by attempting to intervene earlier in the newsmaking
process, by using new technology to greater advantage, and in other ways.
The spin doctors seem to have found ways of circumnavigating the reporter’s
traditional wariness of the source who is an advocate, and they seem to be more
skilled at this than the traditional public relations practitioner. One of the major
implications of spin doctoring for journalists is that reporters should attempt to find
means of newsgathering that are less dependent on the spin doctors. For instance,
journalists should be able to analyze and report on presidential election debates
without having to depend on representatives of the candidates to tell them what
happened and who did what.
The field of public relations also needs to come to terms with the spin doctor
phenomenon. A cursory review of some public relations textbooks suggests little
discussion of the role, and, indeed, some rather drastic differences between spin
doctoring and standard public relations activities. Do public relations practitioners
want to distance themselves from the spin doctor phenomenon, as Bernays appears
to be recommending? Do they want to claim the spin doctors as part of their fold? Or
do they want to select what is effective from the spin doctor repertoire and
incorporate it into the traditional public relations model, while ignoring the rest?
The spin doctor conception of truth, and the ethics of spin doctors, would also
seem to be topics worthy of further discussion.

NOTES

1. Julie Hinds, Gannett News Service (February 3, 1989) (Nexis).

2. Matt Groening, “Life in Hell,” Austin Chvonicfe (January 13, 1993).
3. William Safire, “On Language: Calling Dr. Spin,” ?he New ?Tovk Times (August 31,
1986), sec. 6, p. 8 (Nexis).
4. Michael Specter, “The Media: After Debate, the Masters of ‘Spin’ Take the Floor,” ne
Nm York Times(February 18, 1992), sec. A, p. 16.
5. Bert Metter, “Forum: Advertising in the Age of Spin,” Advertising Age (September 17,
1990), p. 36.
6. Jonathan Alter, “The Era of the Big Blur: More and More Advertisers are Giving Their
Pitches a Journalistic Spin,” Newsweek (May 22, 1989), p. 73.
7. John A. Maltese, Spin Control: The White House office of Communications and the
Management of Presidential News (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1992).
8. Peter Stothard, “Scale the Summit and Win Esteem Where it Counts,” The Times (May
30,199O) (Nexis).
9. Richard Corliss, “Does This Film Seem Familiar? Hollywood Uses Infotainment TV for
Round-the-clock Hype,” Time (November 21, 1988), p. 144 (Nexis).
10. Steve Rubenstein, “That Earthquake Was a Lucky Break,” San Francisco Chronicle (May
2, 1990), p. El4 (Nexis).
11. Ibid, p. 17.
12. Bruce Porter, “The Scanlon Spin,” Columbia Journalism Review (September/October,
1989), pp. 49-54.

26 Vol. 20. No. 1

 7he Spin Doctor: An Alternative Model of Public Relations

13. Ibid, p. 52.

14. Gloria Cooper, “Briefings,” Columbia Journalism Review (March/April, 1988), p. 58.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid, p. 58.
17. John Walcott, “Land of Hype and Glory: Spin Doctors on Parade,” U.S. News ti World
Report(February 10,1992), p. 6.
18. Kenneth T. Walsh “Spinning, out of Control,” U.S. News &- World Report (October 26,
1992), pp. 14-15.
19. Ibid, p. 14.
20. Specter, op. cit., p. 16.
21. Ibid.
22. Fred Barnes, “MegaSpin Don,” New Republic (Dec. 8, 1986), pp. 11-13.
23. Steve Johnson, “The Spin Doctors: Where There’s a Hard Sell, There’s a Publicist,” Yl%e
Chicago Tribune (April 24, 1989), Tempo section, p. 1 (Nexis).
24. Transcript of “Power and Persuasion: How PR Shapes the News,” an episode of Adam
Smith’s Money World, PR Services(Apri1 1991), p. 62 (Nexis).
25. Edward L. Bemays, “Operatives & Lobbyists vs. PR Professionals,” Public Relations
Quarterly 30 (1985), p. 27.
26. C. Policano, “John Scanlon Goes Public,” Public Relations Journal 85 (1985), pp. 27-
32.
27. Thomas B. Rosenstiel, “Media Politics; ‘Spin Doctors’ Can’t Cure Media Ennui,” Los
Angeles Times (October 5,1988), part 1, p. 14 (Nexis).
28. Maxwell E. McCombs, “Explorers and Surveyors: Expanding Strategies for Agenda-
Setting Research,” Journalism Quartet-4 69 (1992), pp. 813-824.
29. James W. Tankard, Jr., Laura Hendrickson, Jackie Silberman, Kris Bliss, and Salma
Ghanem, “Media Frames: Approaches to Conceptualization and Measurement,” paper
presented to the Communication Theory and Methodology Division, Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention, Boston, August 1991.
30. McCombs, op cit.
31. William J. McGuire, “The Myth of Massive Media Impact: Savagings and S&agings,”
in George Comstock (ed.), Public Communication and Behavior, vol. 1 (Orlando:
Academic Press, 1986), pp. 173-257.
32. John Miller, “His Hand Wasn’t on the Throttle,” ne Toronto Star (July 13, 1991), p.
J12 (Nexis).
33. Ann McDaniel and Howard Fineman, “The President’s ‘Spin’ Patrol: How the
Administration Wages its PRWar,” Newsweek (February 11,1991), p. 31.
34. Porter, op. cit.; Cooper, op. cit.
35. Joseph Turow, “Public Relations and Newswork: A Neglected Relationship,” American
Behavioral Scientist 33 (1989), pp. 206-212.

spring 1994 27