Everyone says Twitter is the back channel for PR and marketing types.  But there is another one: Spin Thicket. Folks like Rich Becker, Cam Beck, Alice Marshall and many more spend a few minutes at a time on Spin Thicket submitting, perusing and riffing on the latest news stories online.

Spin Thicket Founder Scott Baradell launched a redesigned version last week. His goal is to quadruple the current 20,000 unique visitors per month by the end of 2008. This would also double the 40,000 uniques per month that Scott’s Media Orchard blog gets.

It’s long been my hope for a more interactive social community within our industry. Some have tried, but maybe Spin Thicket is the answer. Scott kindly commented in advance for this post:

I think a big part of helping people to understand PR — and to help PR people put their work in a broader context — is to understand that “spin,” the interpretation given to a set of facts, is nothing new.  History is written by the winners and always has been, and journalism is the first rough draft of history.  In this context, every day is a battle in which the best spin wins.

I think people are more aware of this now, because, for example, Fox News and MSNBC present the same facts very differently each day.  That’s spin, no different from how corporations spin and non-profit causes spin and so on. Everyone wants to get their point of view heard.  When an organization like PRWatch criticizes the PR profession, what they’re really criticizing is the power of large corporations.  They don’t mind when an environmental group spins; they just don’t like that Exxon Mobil has more resources at its disposal to get its spin in front of the public.

So people are more aware that we live in a Spin Thicket today — but it’s always been this way. Go back to the Punic Wars.  The reason we think Rome was the good guy in the battle with Cartharge is that Rome destroyed Carthage — burnt it to the ground and obliterated all traces of it.  And then they wrote the history is a way that made them look like heroes.  That’s Spin Thicket, B.C.

Thanks to Scott Baradell for his continued efforts. Go get spun!