Saturday, June 2, 2007

An Un-Spun Review on Un-spun by Jackson and Jamieson

We can find "spin" everywhere. From our candidates and politicians chasing office. From advertisers wanting us to buy products and services. From our doctors in providing us a diagnosis. From our bosses in telling us why we can't get a raise or how the company is doing.

Un-Spun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson will help you translate and handle the various spins that you experience daily. This book provides the reader lessons in reasoning and critical thinking, particularly when reading an article, watching a debate or hearing anyone express an opinion.

The book is relatively short (185 pages) and easy to read. I finished it within three days.

Most of the book focuses on examples of political spin. The authors did a reasonable job of avoiding partisanship so Republicans and Democrats won't necessarily feel put upon or singled out.

My own bias is that the current Republican administration is awful at spin. Even if they told the truth, very few people would believe it.

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