Spin

[Paul McFedries]

I can't imagine this is news (I am, after all, no Barry Popik), but while
researching "spinnable" for today's Word Spy, I came across the following:

"What Pertschuk is accused of is being too ardent a consumer advocate, of
'lobbying' members of the committee on behalf of things he thinks are good,
of putting his own philosophical 'spin' on options, of having excessive
influence on Magnuson; in short of acting like the '101st senator.'"
--Spencer Rich, "An Invisible Network of Hill Power," The Washington Post,
March 20, 1977

The OED's earliest citation for this sense of "spin" is 1978. New news or
old news?

Paul