"Fox has stolen the crown. Even people who hate Fox now find themselves forced to react to it. Politicos and pundits who want to reach half of the cable news audience have to show up on Fox. Other news organizations are forced to cover the same stories as Fox just to remain relevant.I don’t watch TV news in general and I dislike Fox’s format the most. It is so loud and garish that concentrating on the story is like trying to read a physics text in a dance club. However, they ask the right questions and piss off the right people."
-- Shannon Love, on the only station with "fair and balanced" as it's slogan - and people are noticing - the same way people notice when someone named "Shannon" is one of the Chicago Boyz.
Appeal to Popularity
ReplyDeleteExplanation
Appeals to popularity suggest that an idea must be true simply because it is widely held. This is a fallacy because popular opinion can be, and quite often is, mistaken. Hindsight makes this clear: there were times when the majority of the population believed that the Earth is the still centre of the universe, and that diseases are caused by evil spirits; neither of these ideas was true, despite its popularity.
Example
(1) Most people believe in a god or ‘higher power’.
Therefore:
(2) God, or at least a higher power, must exist.
This argument is an appeal to popularity because it suggests that God must exist based solely on the popularity of belief in God. An atheist could, however, accept the premise of this argument (the claim that belief in God is widespread) but reject its conclusion without inconsistency.
O.K., I'll bite:
ReplyDeleteWhat "idea" are you assuming/suggesting is "mistaken" in this?
It could be that Fox is free of "bias" (as in the graphic you posted), but that has nothing to do with whether or not "everyone loves" it.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that it is "popular' only proves that it is popular - Oprah is popular too.
Of course, you went for the graphic - an advertisement - as though that means anything. Anything will do, right? I swear, some of you guys are too petty for words.
ReplyDeleteHow you guys live with yourselves, being so small-minded, is beyond me.