Media Fallacies

Many call it "media lies," others have written books on "media bias," yet as we seek the truth as journalists, bloggers, and media professionals we need only to brush off our college English or Philosophy books to understand a key component in the cliché or slippery slope arguments that are called either "logical or formal fallacies." What reminded me of this is the approach the mainstream has taken in war, life, and civil rights. It reminds me of the way health care, the deficit, the environment and even social security is covered under a cloud of suspicion and confusion-logical fallacies.

To understand that the term logical fallacy came from the prophetic words of conservative columnists who saw the dangers of the "women's lib" movement when the ERA passed, and who cried out about the mass killings of the unborn when they passed Roe v Wade. Those messengers were shunned and censored by their brethrens in the media. Those who saw the dangers of the drug culture and free love, who spoke out about our separation from God, these were the same writers and commentators who spoke out about no fault divorce and daycare children. They were labeled as "out of touch," "behind the times," "redundant" and "irrelevant." These are the media professionals who were "run out of town" and the only remnant of their work are the yellowed pages of the College English texts in the examples of "Logical Fallacies."

A logical fallacy is a "flaw in the structure of a deductive argument which renders an argument invalid." Ironically the columnists who were professionally exiled for these arguments were often right on with taking the unpopular stance. In citing the "culprits" most text books take after well meaning columnists of the sixties and seventies. It is in the distinct realm of possibilities that the poster-child for logical fallacies may get a makeover. When you google the term "logical fallacies" the name Ann Coulter comes up. The conservative and controversial Coulter is being lumped into the category once dominated by men like William Buckley, and more recently George Will. The interesting paradox of the "logical fallacy labeling" is that it is rarely the conservatives labeling the liberals. It is too often the other way around.

For instance on the issue of global warming, many conservatives hold conservation very highly and the environment as a calling of stewardship. Yet the information from extreme groups like the Sierra Club and others paint conservatives as destructive evil-doers who are for industrial polluters based on profit margin. The abortion rights activists are constantly chiding conservatives for the pro-life platform with attack ads with the logical fallacy that conservatives don't care about women's reproductive health.

Even though on June 22, 2006, Fox News reported that the U.S. found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq, mainstream media refuses to repute those people who hang their hats on the fallacy the President lied to the American people. By reporting that there were "no weapons," or by continuing the fallacy that the President knowingly lied about it, as if he "doctored" the intelligence reports the mainstream has presented a flaw in a one way argument which rendered the argument invalid. That's what media fallacy is all about.