Podcast: Tutorial 21 - Factoid Propagation

Factoid propagations can be harmless (like the Stella awards) and harmful (like the MMR Autism fraud/hoax).

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Notes:

1. Example - McDonnald's Hot Coffee and other "frivolous" law suits . The "Stella" awards. The fact  - youtube "Legal Minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaG1ugF5FM
   


2. Spot that fallacy with Jeni Barnett
   

1.       The notion that we’re all the same – “Straw man”  and “factoid propagation” – who says this?

2.       Drug company making money – impugning motives (as opposed to the vitamin company...)

3.       Having it both ways, carp, rise in asthma, obesity etc., outright falsehoods, non-sequiturs and red herrings.

4.      Back in the day, when children got Measles, mumps etc. “she’s not advocating that” she says, yet later on does exactly that. Internally inconsistent (note - this is one obvious case of this, there are others...)

5.      If as a human being, you decide, etc. In a democracy you should have the right to say no. This is where you can use the technique of Substitution. 

6.      We have evidence – no we don’t – demonstrably false. Factoid propagation of Wakefield's infamous and now utterly discredited MMR autism  

7.      Not part of the herd. Sanctimony and weasel words

8.      Information being withheld. etc. Paranoid conspiracy mongering. Other things withheld... Rotashield as an example of how evidence is not withheld - it's dealt with openly.

9.       The whole thing is Browbeating 

The harmful factoid is the now discredited Wakefield study. The media very much to blame for the initial and continued scare, though at least there's now been some coverage of the correction. Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World is my number one example... 

Podcast: Hunting Humbug 101 - Tutorial 20: Burden of Proof

The Burden of Proof fallacy is the entire "argument" employed in the advocacy of intelligent design - which is the first example we look at. I interview Sandra Quincey about her win in the retraction of the "Sex Magnet". How did she do this? By correctly employing the burden of proof. We also start a semi-new segment "spot that fallacy", based on the non sequiturist Jeni Barnett.

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The clip on Intelligent Design and Irreducible Complexity is from Unlocking the Mystery of Life.

Sandra Quincey had a win over Century Mail and their "Sex Magnet".
















And here's the retraction they had to make.












Sandra did this through the Therapeutic Products Advertising Complaints Resolution Panel. Aussies aren't normally whingers, but this is certainly a noble exception! Here's Harriet Hall, the Skep Doc, on it.

Here's a link to a post on Bad Science that gives you links to the whole Jeni Barnett fiasco, our endless supply of humbug for "spot the fallacy".