spin room
noun
plural spin rooms
: a designated room or area where journalists interview political candidates and their supporters and representatives before, during, or after a public event (such as a debate or town hall)
The spin room is the presidential-campaign equivalent of the locker room after the big game. But it's a locker room where you don't know the score. … Everybody is claiming they won.—James Carville, quoted in Newsweek
… I am in the spin room where the representatives of the … campaigns will come after the debate to give us their perspective on who won or lost.—Anne Thompson, speaking on MSNBC
Candidates themselves almost never emerge in the spin rooms …—John Bowde
At a typical political convention, political staffers would be relegated to behind-the-scenes spin rooms.—Seema Mehta and Melanie Mason
broadly
: a place where political spin control occurs
Facts are a major inconvenience in that time lull between the polls closing and a result being declared. Spin rooms are where winning can be losing, losing can be winning, down can be up and up can be down. —John Crace
Cite this Entry
“Spin room.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spin%20room. Accessed 27 Aug. 2026.
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