Comparing spin machines in the nurses strike

By Marshall Allen

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

David Bussone, head of the Valley Health System, rattled the pages of the newspaper and read out loud, incredulously, statements that the nurses union is spouting about two of his hospitals in their heated labor dispute.

The union's public relations sharks were getting under his skin.

Bussone was irked because the union's spin doctors had been issuing one-sided pronouncements that were getting picked up by the news media. He held up the Review-Journal, which at various times has reported the union's contention that his hospitals are money-grubbing East Coast robber barons who don't care about patients or nurses.

"Why negotiate in a room when you can negotiate in the press and get the politicians involved and pressure the negotiations to happen?" Bussone said in disgust.

But Bussone's people have been doing the same thing.

Ever since the labor dispute started boiling over into the media, both sides have been trying to shape public perception. Experts say there's no way to quantify its effect, but it may have spurred elected officials to enter the fray.

The maestros perform a finely honed public relations skill, and practitioners even call themselves doctors. Spin doctors.