More Shameful "False Equivalence" By The Traditional Media To Annoy You

One thing that's as shameful as the ever-present problem of 'false balance' that the traditional media rams down our throat each day, is the misleading stories they publish which are rooted in the fallacy of 'false equivalence.'

In a nutshell, false equivalence is an exercise where a reporter holds up an action that purports to expose a hypocrisy (or offer a comparison) when there is simply no connection between the two acts -- aside from the thin piece of thread that the reporter has chosen to use to tie them together. It's the Three-card Monte of journalism, creating the illusion of a connection where none exists.

Case-in-point is today's Boston Herald story by Dave Wedge on the custom-made armor-laden presidential limo that is being assembled to protect America's first black president:

President-elect Obama has stressed the need for energy independence - but he’ll be chauffeured around in a gas-guzzling Cadillac SUV limo that could pose a symbolism problem similar to the car controversy that dogged his friend and ally, Gov. Deval Patrick.

Obama’s presidential ride, dubbed “Cadillac One,” will reportedly be a mammoth, custom-made Cadillac limo built like a GMC truck that sits on 19 -inch wheels. The vehicle will also have 5-inch-thick bulletproof windows, cell phone-jamming gear and blast-proof armor...

Obama frequently spoke during the campaign of the need to slash reliance on foreign oil and pledged to put 1 million hybrid vehicles on America’s roads by 2015. He personally drives a Ford Escape Hybrid.

...Several political and automotive blogs have pointed out the vehicle’s fuel inefficiency, including U.S. News and World Report, which called it “the most monstrous Presidential limousine yet.”

“Fuel-efficiency clearly isn’t on the mind of its designers,” the publication wrote on its “Rankings and Reviews” Web site.

What a truly stupid-assed story.

Is Wedge seriously comparing Obama's position on fuel-efficiency with the gas mileage of the vehicle that will transport the leader of the free world and America's first African American president that is being custom made with five-inch thick bullet-proof glass and blast-proof armor? Seriously?

What next, questioning why Obama will live in a mammoth, energy-wasting White House? Or that it takes millions of gallon of water to landscape the White House grounds? Or all the fuel that the behemoth Air Force One consumes? (I could go on and on and on..).

Seriously, at what point does the media's obsessive need to fill newspapers with mindless stories like this truly contradict what journalism is supposed to be all about?

This is one of the more awful examples of 'false equivalence' that I've seen in ages. This is also why newspaper circulation and revenue has been tanking for quite a long time. It's dumb crap like this, masquerading as journalism, that is really dooming traditional media.

Mark Nickolas is the Managing Editor of Political Base, and this story was from his original post, "A Little Media 'False Equivalence' For Your Afternoon"

Follow Mark Nickolas on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mnickolas

Comments

[lisakaz2]

It'd be great if the vehicles used by the president ran on alt fuel or something BUT thinking the present manufacturing process can provide security with efficience is probably too much to ask. And you're right: that can't be O'bama's fault. What's the alternative right now? No security?

[Konnie]

Add this to President Obama's TO DO list: per T.Boone PIckens, have all the governement vehicles converted to run on Natural Gas.......­.....end of problem.

[LeftRight]

Great idea.... Oh wait, there are no natural gas refueling stations!

[JScott]

Oh then let's call em on it-how bout every other member of Congress REp & Dem
who gets chauffered around and perks on corp jets, for that matter every other CEO doing same and include celebs and right wing talk show hosts, and let's call em on their mansions in the Hamptons and Montecito, Aspen, Bev. Hills etc.

[LizM]

This may be less an example of 'false equivalence' than it is just another run-of-the-mill example of the very standard fare of the dangerous levels of incompetence and ineptitude that run rampant throughout the media and blogosphere, present company excepted. In other words, par for the course.

[karinova]

Um, how many miles does the Presidential limo actually cover in a year?
It's not like he's going to get in it and drive to the store-- or take in on a coast-to-coast road trip.
What are these people even thinki-- oh yeah never mind.

[jcwtts1]

Listen, all presidents drive around in armored cars. That is a simple fact of life. The guy who wondered why Obama didn't fly coach to go see his grandmother is missing the point. O is protected the secret service. They decide what he rides in. They decide how he fly's, and they decide how to protect him. The car O rides in is special. It can take a RPG and not even blink, it can not be stopped by anything short of a tank. People are trying to kill Obama. People were trying to kill GWBush, the president MUST be protected at all times and that is that.

J

[dondon7777]

Amen!

[Durango]

How does Barak Obama, President elect get to decide what kind of vehicle he drives around in when he is President?

He doesn't have control of anything yet.

Wasn't the decision to buy the Cadillac SUV made by the Secret Service?

Wasn't it passed as an appropriation by Congress?

How could that in any way be Obama's decision?

[Bluedog12]

David Wedge the Herald writer that LOST a libel suit. Yes that's a modern American newspaper and "professional" reporter found guilty of LIBEL. The Boston Herald is the same paper that came within a fly wisker of being sued by the New England Patriots for printing a knowingly unsourced,­unverified story potentially libeling the Patriots and Kraft family. That "paper"?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/18/national/main675087.shtml

[MadOzbo]

This isn't why newspaper readership is tanking, that is because we can all now be informed faster, from more sources (and viewpoints) on the Web.

HuffPo is a prime example.
No WAY newspapers can compete with the level of speed and sources that the Internet can. As more and more people come online, the need for physical paper editions of one slant on "the news" decreases.­..

Something like the sale of kerosene lamps declining as electric lamps became more readily available.­..

[MadOzbo]

Whoa, whoa, whoa...Isn­'t this article a prime example of "biting the hand that feeds you?"

With all the various news outlets running 24/7, there is a vast dearth of "content." There is only so much "real" news to report upon. The rest of it needs to be opining on those topics, making whatever comparisons can be justified to create "content."
Lack of content leads to lack of advertising dollars.
Lack of advertising dollars leads to economic downturn and the loss of income and jobs.
And we ALL are seeing the daily results of THAT...

Now, GOOD journalism by the media is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
If we were to actually start applying THAT standard, probably 60% of what is loosely termed "news," would cease to exist...

This article itself is proof of the need for content ~ the critiquing of content from other sources...­In the end, what difference will this make in how that reporter does his job, in how that media outlet reports its news, or how the rest of us are fed such opinions as "news?"

[Mercy8 om]

Yes, we are paying a very heavy price for the lazy gutless reporting that we find in all the media these days. This is why corporate America is despised. We all really know the truth that big business owns the media outlets and they use these outlets to distract us from the real news to sustain job security and to promote their sole agenda to make more and more money by feeding us "junk food journalism".

If we start by asking people already we agree with ( !) more penetrating questions then they will have to go past the regular fare they are constantly serving up and engage in a thinking process for a change. They will have to look deeper within themselves as well as deeper at the rest of the world and offer something that has some real nutrional value.

Let's not accept half baked thoughts and lazy journalism from our own side anymore and see what happens with the other side by just doing that one simple thing.

[wolfmason]

Just as brilliant as the attacks for using his campaign jet to visit his dying grandmother. Obviously, it would've been realistic for Obama and his CIA protection entourage to fly JetBlue---coach. Moreover, why not ditch the SUV, and Obama, his advisors and security detail can pack into a SmartCar like a troupe of clowns. Sure, 5 inches of armor would slow a SmartCar's max speed down to about 15mph, but just think of what a great example it sets for aspiring environmentalists and circus entertainers!

[sdskelton03]

It is the Secret Service that protects the President, not the CIA.

[sdskelton03]

The article said the Limo will have 19" wheels. Will they be spinners? I think that would be awesome.

[Zubeck]

Hey, I'd spring for spinners out of my own pocket. It would keep the right fringe apoplectic for at least a month...

[sdskelton03]

I agree that vehicle a president rides in has nothing to do with energy policy.

I am curious, however, what his being African American has to with it? I would say our President needs the best protection possible regardless of his/her color.

[Nezua]

Would you? Would you also ignore, then, the need to afford greater protection to a black man in the White House? If so, you do not live in the same nation I do called the USA. Or have not read the same history books. Or do not see the same hatred and oppression still that blacks have to struggle against.

Yes, he requires greater protection. How many campaigns for President have YOU read about or heard or seen where the candidate is being called a "Terrorist" or where you hear calls that ask for his head, or people saying "Kill him!" Just curious. This is not happening because of his pretty smile.

[COPerez]

"I am curious, however, what his being African American has to with it?"

You WERE being sarcastic right? I mean, it's not like there were calls to "kill him" and "bomb him" during the oppo rallies. And we're really in a "post-racial" America now, right?

[solid]

Not to mention two or three assisination plots already broken up by the FBI.

[AmericanInLondon]

Great article Mark! False equivalence always bothered me during this campaign, and in past presidential elections as well. Whenever the GOP candidate makes statements that range from inaccurate to blatantly ignorant or false, the so-called liberal media will try to offer "balance" by digging deep for (what they believe) is a similarly absurd claim from the Dem candidate.

Case in point: the discussion on the tone of the campaigns during this election. Never before in recent history has the American public been exposed to such vitriolic, disgusting hatred as that which was displayed at some of those McCain/Palin rallies. Furthermore the candidates themselves made attacks on their opponent that were unprecedented in modern politics. So rather than just calling them out on this, the media chose to bring up the topic by talking about how *both* sides have been running nasty campaigns. A great example of this was when Bob Schieffer, in the third debate, compared McCain's attack line on Obama's supposed terrorist connections, with Obama's insinuations that McCain was erratic. Hmm..."ter­rorist" versus "erratic"? Not exactly equal charges, are they?

[sdskelton03]

You should read a little bit about the political battles between Adams and Jefferson.

[solid]

Yes, politics in the 1800's was uglier than today, but one would have expected the ensuing 200 years would have given us a more advanced society than we have today, as evidenced in the McCain/Palin rallies.

Guess not.