The wages of spin

The Hive notes that Government agencies are spending lots of money on spin, and I recon that's just the salaries. We spend $36.9 million a year on public-sector communications staff and contractors. That is a 27 percent increase over the previous year. The Hive lists 10 of them that spend 20.6m combined. Social Development heads the list. I'm sure that many communications staff don't know how to spin - they get told what to say.

But the wages of spin are greater than the wages in journalism and some of the spinners aren't even trained journalists. Some probably think a comma is a van, a conjunctive adverb is doing something about an eye infection, and a contraction is what pregnant women have.