Topic 81: Popular Fallacies

Carol:

Just The Facts, Ma’am

After the last Presidential Election, I quit watching television news commentary for the sake of my serenity and my blood pressure. Whether from the Red or the Blue, the Conservative or the Liberal,  I’m just not into ranting, whining, and fact-stretching. Consequently, I missed Anderson Cooper’s November 4, 2010 CNN program where he took apart the rumor that President Obama would be spending $200 million dollars a day of the taxpaers’ money—my money—on his Asia trip.

I do read newspapers, so I found out about Anderson Cooper’s program through  one of my favorite non-whining journalistic voices, Thomas J. Friedman, who wrote about it in his November 16, 2010 column.  Friedman does a great job of showing both the original rumor and Cooper’s fact-finding hunt to verify the rumor. I’ve always enjoyed a good detective story, and both Friedman’s op-ed piece and Cooper’s program detailed the process which at one time was the most important part of any journalist’s job, verifying facts and sources.

Ultimately, Friedman’s point—and I’m assuming Cooper’s as well—was that rumors such as the exaggerations about the Asia trip spread because people don’t check their facts, whether the politicians who throw out unsupported or downright  bogus ideas, the commentators who turn them into sound bites, or the viewers and  readers who grab for anything that reinforces their own biases.

When I was teaching composition, I would talk about fact vs opinion and how to evaluate sources for accuracy and reliability. This was part of the research process, but it should just be the fundamental way that anybody uses information: check the facts, check the sources. Unfortunately, another article I read sometime this year says that it’s extremely difficult for people to let go of an idea once it gets into their heads. In July 2010, NPR’s Neal Conan hosted the  “Talk of the Nation” segment  “In Politics, Sometimes the Facts Don’t Matter.” One guest was University of Michigan Researcher Brendan Nyhan whose findings were published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Political Behavior which  I had read about in the New York Times.
 His research found that when people are confronted with facts that contradict a belief, they tend to hold onto that belief and that “corrective information can actually make the problem worse” (source NPR).

Now, I find that scary. It means, for example, that no matter how much work Anderson Cooper did to debunk the $200 million dollar a day Obama “vacation” story, most people who heard it still  believe it.  By the way, the NPR program with Brendan Nyhan attracted my attention because the examples used in the segment came from Arizona. Both our Governor and our senior Senator were cited on a national program from Washington, D.C. to show how misinformation gets spread and held onto with tenacity, even in the face of “corrective information.” Both examples fueled immigration controversies: Governor Brewer’s contention that border patrols were finding beheaded bodies in the southern Arizona desert and Senator McCain’s contention that Phoenix is the number-two kidnapping capital in America.  Neither elected official cited verifiable sources. Both claims should be easy to check. Or, so I thought.

 I tried  the Internet, which is most people’s favorite information source because it’s quick and easy. When I googled  “kidnappings in Phoenix,” I got mostly anecdotal responses on websites that shore up the unsupported with more unsupported opinions I finally scrolled down far enough to find Politifact.com which checks political stories with its “Truth-O-Meter Test,” which the kidnapping story flunked. Is Politifact itself a reliable source? Is Snopes.com, or Factcheck.org? At least these websites show their fact-finding process, much like Anderson Cooper.

I always thought that a strong argument is built on use of evidence. I guess that idea is a popular fallacy. According to the research, the best argument seems to be on the Old West notion of “Shoot first and ask questions later.”  

 Sources:  

Friedman, Thomas J. “Too Good to Check.” NY Times Nov. 16, 2010 A33
“In Politics, Sometimes the Facts Don’t Matter.” Talk of the Nation. National Public Radio.
Politifacts. Com

Megan:

Last night, I pulled a mom and brought up the topic with friends so I could steal some of their ideas. After a good laugh over a misunderstanding with the title, we agreed that the modern expression would probably be “Common Misonceptions.”

I took notes on a cocktail napkin just like Don Draper from Mad Men as everyone shouted out their ideas… Al Gore did not invent the Internet … Dr Charles Drew was not denied a blood transfusion at an White Hospital… Henry VIII only had six wives, not eight … if you swallow your gum, it does not stay in your stomach for 7 years … if you make that face, it will not freeze permanently … but I did not make enough time to actually write an essay.

But of course, there is always time for a cartoon:

 

 I finally made it to Colorado, and have extended my stay. In fact, I'll be out of town for a while, but I'll post when and if I can.