The red herring is a logical fallacy because it does not work toward an argument’s resolution. It should be easy to guess how the red herring is a fallacy. You might have connected the dots already, but red herrings frequently appear in “PR speak.” Public relation (PR) representatives use red herrings to get around hard questions and direct the conversation toward something less negative.
What is ‘safety’?” This is strong language to dissuade Person A from pursuing the initial argument. In our example, Person B ends with, “Let’s work this out. Red herrings also frequently end in a question or turn, in order to push the false line of reasoning. In this example, “Safety is something we all want” is a truism, because it says something obviously true that adds nothing to an argument. Red herrings frequently contain emphatic language and truisms, both of which are hard to ignore. This red herring “diverts the argument away from its resolution.”ĭon't let someone distract you with a red herring, flaticon. It bears some resemblance to the argument at hand, but it is different enough that it circumvents the main argument. Notice that this is not a silly or random counterpoint. When we talk about police confessions, we need to talk about the safety of the people in the room, the safety of the officers, and the safety of the victims. Person B: Safety is something we all want: safety for everyone involved. This has to stop, because it can send innocent people to death row.
Person A: Police interrogators can exploit the vulnerable to make false confessions.
#RED HERRING FALLACY EXAMPLES IN MEDIA CODE#