Philosophy
For those who didn't catch the New York Times' article, it turns out that the retired military leaders who were being used by virtually every major American news outlet, almost every single one parroting administration talking points word-for-word in the lead up to and during the war, were on the payrolls of defense contractors who stood to make massive amounts of money...say it with me...because of the war. Yet, these folks were put forward as independent, objective voices and repeatedly quoted as if they were autonomous authorities.
Arguing by authority, of course, is fine. But as any good critical thinking students knows there are three components to being someone legitimately cited in an argument from authority. (1) Actual material existence in the real world -- none of this "You know, I read somewhere that..." nonsense. (2) Expertise in the field in question -- an authority needs to be someone we have indubitable reason to believe would actually would know the answer to the question at hand because of experience and education. (3) Independence -- it must be someone who does not stand to profit from having us believe one way or the other, even a perceived conflict of interest is enough to rule someone out as an authority.
Here were people who were getting a significant sum of money in order to do PR for the defense contractors they work for and who were being fed talking points from the administration and yet are willingly given rhetorical camouflage by those people whose job it is to be critical investigators. A working democracy requires a well-informed electorate and instead we get deliberate deception.
Yet, as Glenn Greenwald (the smartest man in the blogosphere -- and one heck of writer) points out this made not a single Sunday news show nor was commented upon by none of the major news outlets -- including the New York Times itself.
After Judith Miller, the staged toppling of the Saddam statue, Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch, the fake Falloujah announcement,...and now this, at what point does the American media simply become obsolete? At what point do our main media outlets simply become noise that fails to be taken seriously?
- Oil And Gas
Jigamo asks, "Where does the advice to change oil every 3,000 miles or 3 months come from? It doesn't make sense to me why people would still being changing oil so frequently when there are options out there that are rated for 25,000 miles (or 1 year)."The...
- To On Ko
I love Countdown with Keith Olberman. He was the only media voice with the courage to speak truth to power when all others were giving us no truth, just cower. Usually, he's very good in terms of pointing out reasoning errors and inconsistencies in...
- Two Quoque: Tag Teaming A Discussion About Ad Hominem Attacks
Hanno sent me this: The "Tennessee Center for Policy Research," a self-described research organization for policy solutions through free markets, has put out a now famous press release attacking Al Gore's energy use. The press release is as follows:...
- Ethics, Authority, And Armando
A couple of very good posts on an interesting ethical questions from two of my favorites in the blogosphere. Janet Stemwedel (aka Dr. Free-Ride) of Adventures in Ethics and Science and Lindsay Beyerstein of Majikthise have been discussing the exposing...
- Green Beret? Red Herring.
A dozen retired Generals have called for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. The President continues to insist he's done a heckofa job and stand by one of the architects of the incredibly successful plan to invade Iraq and disband...
Philosophy
Big Brass Payola
For those who didn't catch the New York Times' article, it turns out that the retired military leaders who were being used by virtually every major American news outlet, almost every single one parroting administration talking points word-for-word in the lead up to and during the war, were on the payrolls of defense contractors who stood to make massive amounts of money...say it with me...because of the war. Yet, these folks were put forward as independent, objective voices and repeatedly quoted as if they were autonomous authorities.
Arguing by authority, of course, is fine. But as any good critical thinking students knows there are three components to being someone legitimately cited in an argument from authority. (1) Actual material existence in the real world -- none of this "You know, I read somewhere that..." nonsense. (2) Expertise in the field in question -- an authority needs to be someone we have indubitable reason to believe would actually would know the answer to the question at hand because of experience and education. (3) Independence -- it must be someone who does not stand to profit from having us believe one way or the other, even a perceived conflict of interest is enough to rule someone out as an authority.
Here were people who were getting a significant sum of money in order to do PR for the defense contractors they work for and who were being fed talking points from the administration and yet are willingly given rhetorical camouflage by those people whose job it is to be critical investigators. A working democracy requires a well-informed electorate and instead we get deliberate deception.
Yet, as Glenn Greenwald (the smartest man in the blogosphere -- and one heck of writer) points out this made not a single Sunday news show nor was commented upon by none of the major news outlets -- including the New York Times itself.
After Judith Miller, the staged toppling of the Saddam statue, Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch, the fake Falloujah announcement,...and now this, at what point does the American media simply become obsolete? At what point do our main media outlets simply become noise that fails to be taken seriously?
- Oil And Gas
Jigamo asks, "Where does the advice to change oil every 3,000 miles or 3 months come from? It doesn't make sense to me why people would still being changing oil so frequently when there are options out there that are rated for 25,000 miles (or 1 year)."The...
- To On Ko
I love Countdown with Keith Olberman. He was the only media voice with the courage to speak truth to power when all others were giving us no truth, just cower. Usually, he's very good in terms of pointing out reasoning errors and inconsistencies in...
- Two Quoque: Tag Teaming A Discussion About Ad Hominem Attacks
Hanno sent me this: The "Tennessee Center for Policy Research," a self-described research organization for policy solutions through free markets, has put out a now famous press release attacking Al Gore's energy use. The press release is as follows:...
- Ethics, Authority, And Armando
A couple of very good posts on an interesting ethical questions from two of my favorites in the blogosphere. Janet Stemwedel (aka Dr. Free-Ride) of Adventures in Ethics and Science and Lindsay Beyerstein of Majikthise have been discussing the exposing...
- Green Beret? Red Herring.
A dozen retired Generals have called for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. The President continues to insist he's done a heckofa job and stand by one of the architects of the incredibly successful plan to invade Iraq and disband...