by Sam van Almen

Created on: December 10, 2009   Last Updated: December 23, 2009

LOGICAL FALLACY MONGERS IN AMERICAN

CONSERVATIVE MEDIA

Logical fallacies have become such a part of American media infused lives, that they are accepted as valid points of view by many.  These illogical arguments are daily used by “Right Wing” pundits to garner support for their conservative agenda. 

Critical thinkers should easily see through these lines of thought, but Americans are so thoroughly bombarded by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, that many do not think for themselves and accept the opinions of these sources and their ilk as indisputable fact.  Many invalid points are repeated by so many so often, that they appear to have backing simply because they are espoused so many times. 

In a broad sense this gives weight to the Band Wagon fallacy.  The “bandwagon” argument arises from the tendency of individuals to join a school of thought and thus “hopping on the bandwagon” due to the popularity of an individual or premise. (Curtis)

This paper will not try to define what is “news” and what is “opinion” in today’s programming, but will explore common fallacies that are fielded by the above named journalists and also their satirical use by Stephen Colbert on the Comedy Central television show The Colbert Report.

The most glaring fallacy used by Rush Limbaugh is the Abusive Ad Hominem Fallacy. “A debater commits the Ad Hominem Fallacy when he introduces irrelevant personal premisses about his opponent.” (Curtis)  He is creative with this ruse and is not always direct. 

He is able to impugn the President, his administration or liberal members of congress with his manner of speech or the bastardizing of their names.  The Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is referred to as Senator “Turban” (as a not so subtle way to connect him to Arabic and Muslim ideology) and quotes from Senator Barney Frank are repeated in a lispy fashion as if to call attention to Mr. Frank’s sexual preference. 

Mr. Limbaugh also attempts to cast a very negative light on supporters of the President by referring to them as Obama Nazis.  This last implication is particularly curious as the second definition of “Nazi” in the Encarta Dictionary is “racist; somebody regarded as having right-wing political views, especially on race and immigration”. (Encarta Dictionary) This definition certainly

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