Journalists + strict logic = ?
This morning I had breakfast watching some journalists on TV, discussing the morning news in a kind of informal debate. They were speaking about judge Grande-Marlaska’s latest decissions, and about the Justice being independent from the Political power (as it should be in a democracy).
Now, one of them uttered the following phrase:
I don’t think the judges are driven by what the politicians ask them to decide, because if it were so, I’d be very afraid.
Yeah, just like that! Not only once. She repeated the same motto, slightly changed to “[…], because if it were so, we would not be able to say we live in a democracy”
And no one corrected her in any way! No one had the guts to tell her: “Silly you! That is an argumentum ad consequentiam, and therefore a logical fallacy“.
What kind of idiots are feeding us with news, if they forget any kind of rigor in their argumentations? Their public display of broken logic will end up idiotizing the spectators, who will assume any non sequitur is a valid argument.
isilanes said,
March 1, 2008 @ 13:02 pm
Note: moved from my WordPress.com blog.
Chell
“well i’m no journalist, but perhaps the show was directed more to the masses than to journalists with theoretical explanation for everything? ordinary people tend to focus on the content and not the rule behind each argument”
Me:
Chell, I agree, but… do you really understand the implications of what you say? It means that:
1. The masses are stupid
2. The journalists know it
3. They treat us as such
4. We silently concur
Logic is not something that you can switch on and off. Everything you say MUST have it, or it is plain bullshit. And the “masses†should learn that.