Different Fallacies in the News - Essay Example

? DIFFERENT FALLACIES IN THE NEWS Fallacies in the news are the defects and flaws in the arguments presented in the news causing them to be weak and invalid. The news may become defective either due to non-existent/ inaccurate facts or due to withholding of necessary information required. The information in many cases is withheld by the source of the news. All these defects and flaws result in the fallacies in news. A number of fallacies are being used in the news nowadays. However, it is not much more difficult to find the fallacies in news. But before finding fallacies in the news, one should be aware of the different forms of fallacies being used. A common type of fallacy is a slippery slope fallacy in which the writer suspects that they need to continue the topic which they don’t like if they have once opened it. That is why, in slippery slope fallacy, the results of actions specified are overstressed in order to alarm the reader of the message. It is called slippery slope fallacy because once the writer has taken a step in a certain direction, he cannot then stop and close the topic simply. So, the writer exaggerates the arguments in order to pave way to close the topic. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican Congressman, giving interview to Fox News said “the people are not interested in starting new businesses because they are not certain that they will gain access to the capital funds that they will require for their businesses. Moreover, there is also doubt about the tax rates. So, the people are not much inclined towards businesses.” However, the premise was just a fallacy as where the taxes that worth 700 billion dollars are being utilized by the banks if they are not lending monies to businesses. He also exaggerated the uncertainty and doubts about the tax rates which are not doubtful to this level and also not much fluctuating. Another form of fallacies is hasty generalization fallacy. Sometimes, the writer is incapable of obtaining complete information about the subject of his interest. He, despite of bothering himself to obtain complete information, makes haste and write about the topic on the basis of information he contains. The scenario becomes worse when the writer also makes conclusions on the basis of insufficient and limited evidence he holds. The hasty generalization fallacy is very common in the sense that in many cases, some people in a group are observed and then it is assumed that all the members of that particular group will behave in the manner as observed. The third, and rather worse, type of fallacy is ad hominem fallacy. The writer when disagreeing with the argument of an individual criticizes and pinpoints the character of the writer in spite of the argument presented by him. The intention behind this fallacy is to destroy the writer’s credibility. Once the credibility is lost, how stronger the argument is, it will lose its importance and significance. The main problem with this fallacy is that it sometimes weakens the correct argument also. A classic example of ad hominem fallacy is the discussion that took place between Michael Moore and Bill O’Reilly, a television reporter. The topic of the discussion was the necessity of war against Iraq. Moore did not discuss the topic clearly. However, he pointed out that the President Bush lied to the nation. He also said that it did not suit to the president to lie. By saying this, Moore did not specify his point of view. He only attacked the honesty and integrity of the president Bush. Thus, Moore indirectly opposed the war of Iraq but did not say this directly. Another type of fallacy is the fallacy of relevance which causes flaws in the interrelation of premises and information with the conclusions. This is same to some extent to ad hominem fallacy. In ad hominem fallacy, the integrity f the person is attacked falsely while in fallacy of relevance the information and conclusions are interrelated wrongly. So, both these fallacies include the interrelation of information and conclusions but in different manner. Two other forms of fallacies are formal fallacies and informal fallacies. The formal fallacies arise due to any error in the structure and form of the argument. On the other hand, informal fallacy is the one which is fallacious and erroneous due to any reason other than that of containing flaws in the structure of its arguments. Another form of fallacy is to avoid questions or giving inappropriate replies. This fallacy is not created by the writers but it is generated by the person from whom the information about a topic is required to be retrieved. An example of this fallacy came into light when a news reporter asked from U.S. senator Bill about the regulations being introduced for the saving of money. The question was quite simple that whether these regulations will assist in saving money. However, the reply by Senator Bill was quite astonishing and depicted that he only wants to get rid of the question. He replied that he wanted to improve healthcare system in America. And until the system was improved, he thought that whole of America was in trouble. A similar fallacy was made by Charles Payne in his interview to Fox News on 4th July, 2010. The interview was designed to get point of view of Mr. Payne about the cutting of taxes. However, Mr. Payne, while discussing the unemployment, said that the rate of unemployment was 10%. One of Congressmen said that the latest report showed that the taxpayers’ taxes were being misused. Mr. Payne further argued that the increased rate of unemployment show that the plan of Congress didn’t work. The interview was designed to get Payne’s point of view about the cutting of taxes. However, what Payne discussed was unemployment. Another category of fallacy is the fallacy of ambiguity. In this fallacy, some ambiguity is included in the information or the conclusions drawn therefrom. The ambiguity seems to be true but actually it is false. However, the ambiguity cannot be traced out easily. However, once the problematic definitions are noticed, the fallacies in the arguments can be identified by the reader. Another category of fallacy used in the news is the fallacy of presumption. It involves the assumption by the writer of the information which he is thought to prove in the news or in the article being written. This is completely invalid as if the premise which requires to be proved is assumed initially, there remains no point for the writer to be proven. Example of news that contains fallacy of presumption is the information containing false dilemma. The false dilemma is originally incorrect and so, it is very easy and seems sensible to assume the flaws present in the information. Then, it is very to prove that the dilemma present in the information and incorrect. Fallacy of weak/ inappropriate induction is also a type of fallacy. For this fallacy to rise there must be a connection present in the premises/ information and the argument drawn by the writer. But the connection between the two is either inappropriate or very weak. However, there must be a real or apparent connection present between the premises and conclusions. If the connection is completely illogical then the arguments and conclusions drawn on the basis of premises and information fall in the category of fallacies of relevance. Fallacy of weak induction is generally practiced by oversimplifying or exaggerating the information. This oversimplification and exaggeration paved ways to make links between the premises and the conclusions drawn. However, the connections made may not be strong enough to hide these flaws. These different forms of fallacies as discussed above are very common in the news and articles of the writers. On the one end, they distract attention of the user of the information or the reader from the main topic, while on the other they alter the meanings of the information altogether. However, there is a great care required to be taken by the writers, while writing any article or giving any news, for the handling of the information and the fallacies included therein so that the information, though not completely, to a great extent depicts the actual picture of the situation. However, by misusing the information, they may generate news containing a number of fallacies and thus circulating incorrect and false information among the users. Media is the most efficient and effective means of communication in the modern world. A little rumor generated by the media may become a huge problem for the society to handle. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the media channels to minimize the use of fallacies, whether intentionally or otherwise, in their news. This is the only way by which the media may gain and retain confidence of the general public in them and in the news generated by them. This will prosper not only the media industry but also the society as a whole. References: 1. Cline, Austin. What is a Fallacy? 4th April. 2011. http://atheism.about.com/od/logicalfallacies/a/overview.htm 2. Associated content. Identifying Fallacies in News. 4th April. 2011. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/144113/identifying_fallacies_in_the_news.html?cat=35 3. Fandecande. Fallacies of Logic on Fox News: The Propaganda Channel. 5th April. 2011. http://fandecande.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/fallacies-of-logic-on-fox-news-the-propaganda-channel/ 4. Fox News. Fair and Balanced. 5th April. 2011. www.foxnews.com Read More