Fallacies in Fox News Article

American media and politics are filled with logical fallacies. Fox News is especially known for its biased and non-credible articles. Fox News’ recent article “Top California Democrat: Reliance is the ‘American Way’” is about Democratic State Senator Kevin de Leon. The article includes an abundance of logical fallacies, attempting to persuade readers. The article states that de Leon is receiving little attention from the California media. The writer, Richard Grenell then states, “Maybe that’s because reporters in the Golden State are used to hearing a growing chorus of Democrats embrace the welfare state and dismiss hard work.” This first fallacy is shifting the burden of truth. When the writer uses the term “maybe,” he aims to persuade the reader, while really he has no evidence to support his claim. Grenell also uses the either/or fallacy when he says that either people are hard-workers or they are completely lazy and rely on welfare. In this case, Grenell is making the generalization that all Californians are lazy and rely on welfare. This is also a non sequitor fallacy because the work ethic of the people has nothing to do with how much attention de Leon should be receiving politically. Grenell goes on to discuss how de Leon is reinforcing that laziness is not a bad thing for America. Grenell completely disagrees with de Leon and makes this very clear. Grenell states, “California Democrats are out to kill the American dream by ridiculing the commitment to hard work.” This sentence is entirely a hasty generalization, labelling every single California Democrat based on one man. Also, Grenell exhibits the logical fallacy ad populum as he appeals to the audience’s sense of identity as Americans. The term “American dream” is meant to appeal to the reader’s sense of patriotism and tradition. It is outrageous how many blatant logical fallacies Grenell uses in this article.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/20/top-california-democrat-reliance-is-american-way/