I thought the figure would be much higher, around 80-90%.<p>Maybe that's why nobody is reading them anymore?<p>Is the economist really the last bastion of interesting informative information or is it just me?
I actually stopped reading daily newspapers about two years ago. You can get the 'necessary' (differs for everyone) amount of daily information from the web - faster, cheaper and more relevant due to filtering possibilities.<p>Thorough analysis is in my opinion still best to be found in a select number of weekly and/or monthly publications. The time span involved leads to less noise making it. Finance & economics is the only exception I know of, notwithstanding The Economist. There are an immense number of really knowledgeable bloggers.
This article is based on some faulty logic, mainly that a story started by a PR pitch is "spin." So if Paypal decides to partner with Bump to make a payment application, and the companies put out a press release, and a writer decides that is interesting, it counts as 'spin' in the study. Same thing if the White House announces something. Of course, journalists rely on press releases to find some of their stories. That doesn't make it spin. Things are much more complicated than that. Spin comes from simply accepting a point of view uncritically and not challenging assertions made by sources quoted in a story. Spin also comes in ways that aren't easily detectable, such as getting in with a source by being an outlet that is generally favorable to it.<p>Basically, this study doesn't mean anything. For instance, when Facebook decided to change its privacy policy in December it announced it to the press. Many published the changes and questioned their legitimacy and why Facebook was inverting its policy. But according to the study, all of those stores were "spin."
When news-people use the word "spin" it's invariably in the same errand: To blame someone/something else for the fact that they don't do their jobs well.<p>Spin is your source biting back, and some of the sources are getting quite good at it. The response is to bite harder. Writing process-stories about how this or that was "spinned" is just whining.<p>Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with Crikey and can't tell for sure if this applies to them.
If anyone is interested in a more academic (i.e., behavioral economics / information theory-based) discussion of "spin" or "slanting," I'd recommend this paper by Mullainathan and Shleifer:<p>The Market for News<p><a href="http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/shleifer/files/market_aea.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/shleifer/files/mark...</a>
No way !?<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent</a> (Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky)