The Spin Cycle

Spin used to be just a setting on your washing machine, now it’s a way of life. Most of us think we’re experts at spotting spin, and we are, in that we notice spin with which we disagree. Let me let you in on a little secret: we’re missing half the spin, that is, the spin with which we agree!

Spin, the art of not being entirely truthful (“economical with the truth” I once heard it called), leaving out some inconvenient facts or exaggerating others, is endemic in the news and on social media. In the legacy media, it’s driven by (1) partisan blind spots, (2) lazy or uneducated reporting, and (3) the rush to be first, whether right or wrong. On social media it’s the same. Let’s look at some examples.

Elon Musk is running DOGE, the misnamed Department of Government Efficiency. It’s misnamed only in that the title was retrofitted to create the acronym DOGE, after a Musk favorite cryptocurrency, and “Department” has a specific meaning in government terminology. Reminds me of the time I explained to a security guard that writing the word “SECRET” on the top and bottom of a blank piece of paper didn’t make it secret, as that was a status requiring several other qualifications according to the government.

Either way, DOGE is running around accessing secured federal information technology systems and making unconstitutional eliminations of federal employees and programs. Or they’re not. See, no one, and I mean no one, really knows for sure. President Trump has said Musk is a special government employee, a category which would grant him such access. But the President has also said Musk is not in charge of DOGE. Many people are getting “fired” and some federal funding transfers have stopped, but no one has produced an order signed by Musk directing such things. And that matters, because courts have enjoined his access and actions, then gradually dropped their objections, because you can’t stop the actions of the federal government just because you don’t like him. You have to produce evidence, and so far it’s lacking. That doesn’t mean such evidence won’t arrive tomorrow: it may. We just don’t know, but that doesn’t stop spin meisters from saying it’s all legal or unconstitutional (either/or).

Mr. Musk’s DOGE team claimed to save $US 8 Billion dollars on a single Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract. The amount was actually an accounting error; the actual cancelled contract was for only $8 million. So they did save some money, but not nearly as much as they indicated. Now they’re talking about sending DOGE rebates to all Americans based on the “savings” they are creating from cutting federal expenditures. The figure $5,000 USD had been bandied about. There are approximately 260 million American adults. Giving each one dollar would require . . . (yes, you guessed it) $260 million dollars. Make it 100 dollars and you need $26 trillion dollars; the entire US federal budget is only about $7 trillion dollars, so don’t buy that new fridge just yet.

On the flip side, have you heard about the mass firings of civil servants? Did you think federal employees were notoriously hard to fire? They are, except during their probationary period (usually one-to-two years when they enter on active federal service or change jobs or classifications, becoming an executive, for example). During this period, they can be fired for almost any reason, the one known exception is they cannot be fired for political reasons. It appears the administration is going through entire agencies and firing all employees in their probationary period. Why? Isn’t that stupid? On one hand, yes, you remove the flow of new blood and let go of people you just trained. On the other hand, if you do it in a sweeping way, no one can claim you’re doing it for political reasons (which means it won’t be successfully challenged in court or mediation).

What about the non-probationary federal employees who worked in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs? How can they be fired, aren’t they protected? Yes, they are, but they’ll have to make claims in court or the labor relations board. Most have chosen not to do so. Would you want to work for an organization that has identified your specialty as something to be eradicated? And given recent court rulings about DEI programs, a legal case could have the effect of validating the administration’s position that DEI is unconstitutional. This falls under the category of “don’t ask a question you don’t want the answer to.”

Did the administration not cut employees at the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA), the folks who (among other things) protect nuclear weapons? Who is guarding the nukes? Some media claimed the administration let go perhaps 300 probationary employees, but the Department of Energy spokesman said in fact only 50 employees managing a loan program or with clerical roles were fired. So are we supposed to believe the federal civilian spokesman as a competent civil servant, or ignore him as an incompetent Trump toady? It gets so confusing at times. Now some of the fired employees have been recalled (I guess it’s a blessing that someone thought something wasn’t quite right).

Here’s the ultimate in spin: did you hear about the US Agency for International Development (AID) program which spent $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland? What about the $32,000 spent for a transgender comic book in Peru? Not true, the Washington Post intoned in a fact check about the administration’s “wildly inaccurate claims.” The Post refutes these claims by explaining both were State Department grants (oh, that’s totally different). And it wasn’t a DEI musical, it was a musical event (key word) promoting DEI. And the comic book featured a gay hero, not trans. Granted (pun intended) these are small sums, but calling the claims wildly inaccurate on this basis is only possible if you have lost all sight of the meaning of accuracy in the first place.

I’m sympathetic to friends who tell me they don’t know what to believe. It’s hard to dig into complex topics, and easier to go with your gut, what you want to believe, or what a source you like tells you. But it’s deadly, too. Your choices are to either do the research, avoid joining the discussion, or participating in the spin, thereby making it worse. Doing the research is exhausting, even for a retiree with mucho federal experience and too much time on his hands. Avoiding commenting or sharing things is hard when everybody else is doing it. But if you choose the third option, you abandon any pretense of ethical standing. You’re not fighting the good fight, clarifying the problem, illuminating solutions, or engaging in informed debate.

And that’s a choice. When you’re in the washer, spinning endlessly around, no one will take you seriously when you say it’s time to stop.