Over the course of this seemingly endless, Bataan Death March-esque, election season even the most innocent and trusting members of the public have come to notice the deliberate and outrageous spin doctoring both parties are engaged in (though from my viewpoint the Republicans seem to be doing more of it and better than the Democrats).

My favorite election spin of the last few weeks was when the Republicans lied, bare-faced, about Sarah Palin’s position and actions concerning the Alaskan “bridge to nowhere” – a truly remarkable and for that matter shameful exhibition of spin doctoring.

If only all spin was so transparent and downright obvious but alas, much of it is far more cunning than that and this is where this week’s focus, SpinSpotter, comes in.

I’ll let SpinSpotter introduce itself: “Spin doesn't belong in the news. It's like putting motor oil in the mojito. We have tremendous respect for journalists, but who would argue that the media circus isn't out of control? A full 66% of Americans think the press is one-sided. Now there's a Web site and software tool that exposes news spin and bias, misuse of sources, and suspect factual support. At SpinSpotter, you'll experience the news in a profound new way. Yes, the truth is back in town.”

So what does SpinSpotter actually do? Once you have registered (free) and you’ve installed their toolbar – they call it “Spinoculars” which is currently only for Firefox 3 (Internet Explorer 7 support is promised “soon” – a term that is, in itself, considered spin in IT circles) you’re ready.

Using the toolbar and its alter ego, a submenu in the right click context menu , you can highlight and comment on any spin you discover on any Web page and you can also view spin highlighted by other users. The toolbar also allows you to share the spin you find using through social networking tools such as Del.icio.us, Digg, and Reddit or email the page complete with spin mark up to other people.

Using you Spinoculars you can select the level of spin displayed (SpinSpotter doesn’t define exactly how the levels are defined) and whether just the highlighting is shown or whether the comments of the user who created the highlight are shown.

To flag something you consider spin you select the text and then right click or use the controls on the SpinSpotter tool bar.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.