Manipulation of the news, especially political news. The term, originating about 1980, uses “spin” in the sense of how something will be interpreted by the public. Among the techniques of spin control are selecting only facts that support one’s position, euphemisms to support one’s agenda, or making something sound like a denial when it is not. For example, “The company’s chief financial officer is a master of spin control; he always presents figures that make stockholders believe that the firm is prospering.” A closely related term is spin doctor, the person charged with getting the public to see something from a certain viewpoint. The officer in the example above is a spin doctor.