The Art of Spin

Compare the following 2 accounts of the same hypothetical event and statement.

I received notice today that I received another round of financing to further my goals. CitiGroup completed all of the necessary paperwork to complete the deal today and I'll be putting the money to good use by next week. This financing will fund capital improvement projects including the expansion of my development workstation. CitiGroup and I have partnered extensively in the past to fund training initiatives.

OR

CitiBank raised my VISA credit limit today and I want to buy a new laptop next week. In the past, I used my CitiBank credit card to pay tuition.

I won't embarass the source, but today I ran into another press release that was pretty much the equivalent of my example here. I find these simultaneously amusing and sad. They're amusing because a lot of pretty boring stuff gets dressed up as though it were really important. It's sad because lots of people report this kind of thing with bated breath as though it really were important.

And, much like the passive voice in writing, it usually is covering something up or compensating for a deficiency in the actual event or idea. Fortunately, this kind of thing is becoming transparent to more people and harder to get away with for the spin doctors, but it's still out there all over the place.