I have long held a particular disdain for PR people and the business of spin. I graduated with honors from a well-respected university journalism department. Idealistic and naive, I was chagrined with my fellow School of Communications graduates who studied and sought positions in public relations. "PR pays the way," they would say. "There's no money in pursuing and publishing the truth." Oh, how right they were (I learned while working as a poorly compensated journalist). How sad, how true, how repulsive...
What irked me then infuriates me now. And so, in my recent cogitations over the "way we live now," I composed this ode to the odious...the spin doctors and propaganda weavers for the medical industry, the food industry, and the government agencies and legislators that support them:
The Song of the Spin Doctors
Gentlemen, Ladies, we have agendas to push,
Your task is clear, your talents dear, there are rebels who must be shushed.
Don your slick suits, your muck gloves and condescendingly confident smiles,
We have slime to sell, mud to sling, a Tale to spin for miles.
Longer, louder, farther, faster,
Raise your voices, drown out critics crying “disaster!”
Up is down, Wrong is right,
Sense is stupidity, black is white.
Individuality must be stamped out…
Create fear, create doubt…
Present Experts with Clout.
Free thought, old ways, unique action must die,
They threaten our profits, the control for which we vie.
Bring out the dogs, set loose the hounds,
The Controversy is stewing, mavericks must be put down.
Present some sound bytes, force feed them as facts,
Find ridiculous specimens among our enemies and parade them as quacks.
Spin, people, Spin…
Exploit and Invent!
There are masses to be controlled and Millions to be Spent!
