The Unpersuadables Chapter 7 Summary

A liberal is a person that believes that the government should provide equality for all, while a conservative is a person that believes in limited government and that the government should provide the necessary freedom for people to pursue their own goals. Over time, it has been argued, mostly by conservatives, that there is a liberal bias in the media. Liberals have combated this idea with the belief that conservative media is devoted to making efforts to invoke fear and division in the general public. Though liberals make a fine counter-argument, it is easier to observe that the media is liberal-biased. The liberal versus conservative debate can be compared to facts versus values. Another reason for bias within the media is that a significant percentage of minorities, or smaller groups within the population that are often thought to be poorer, politically identify themselves as liberals. To make these minorities feel like the government is on their side as well as everyone else’s, the media must accommodate the needs of these minorities. Because of this, the media becomes liberal-biased.

Chapter 9 of “The making of the fittest” talks about different times in history, including the present, when people and even scientists denied and rejected scientific facts. This chapter is titled seeing and believing. I believe it should be seeing and not believing because although prevalent evidence was provided to prove genetics, for example, to be true Trofim Lysenko

Journalists play an important part in the democratic process. Traditionally, the roles of the news media are to provide a forum for debate, represent opposing perspectives on the day’s issues and hold public officials accountable while serving their constituents. However, in recent decades, media has given way to biased forms of news— partisan media. In Matthew Levendusky’s “How Partisan Media Polarize America,” he explores if these partisan media influences viewers. The book’s second chapter, “What Do Partisan Media Actually Say?” concludes that partisan media promotes a larger agenda separately to Democrats and Republicans, attack the opposing side while denouncing compromise, and usually side with their candidate of choice during

Robert J. Samuelson’s essay, “Picking Sides for the News,” details the problem of citizens only hearing the news that they want to hear through statistics. Samuelson begins his essay by giving the reader the opinion of Americans in regards to news being reported. He goes on to say that Americans are increasingly choosing to listen to news based on “partisanship,” meaning conservatives listen to Republican news and liberals listen to Democratic news. Samuelson highlights the fact that most Americans are starting to not believe what they hear in the news, partisan growth resulting because of the distrust. Samuelson concludes his essay by describing why the reader should care. He believes the reader should care because the media’s bias’ are shaping

Continued inquiry implies that the process of inquiry seemingly never comes to an end. Furthermore, continued inquiry is fundamentally based on opposing appearances and ideas, instead of prior knowledge as in the case of the dogmatists. Sextus argues that it is the setting in opposition of these appearances and ideas of equal force that forms the process of skeptic inquiry. Consequently leading to a suspension of judgement. The suspension of judgement means that the skeptic neither denies nor affirms an idea when it comes to inquiry. Such a stance leads to a calmness of the soul or freedom from disturbance. There is a disturbance that arises from seeking what is true or false according to the skeptics. For the skeptics it was easier to go for a consideration pushed equally in both directions.(III 26 -

Often times people utilize certain sources and watch certain news channels because these viewers can relate to the views on these sources. It can make one believe that his/her perspective is correct simply because that is what the new source is providing. Viewers watch news sources that share the same opinions as their own, because these viewers are just as bias as the sources; these viewers favor one side, as do the news sources. John Stossel, a Fox News reporter discusses the book “Bias” with author Bernie Goldberg, an ex CBS News reporter. John expected for ABC to read the book and disagree with Bernie on the ABC news channel (Goldberg and Stossel). However, these people were proud of not reading the book and gave it no attention. Even if one does not agree with a certain viewpoint, it is very important to hear the different perspectives because it allows the viewer to see and hear other people’s opinion. Because most news sources do not include all sides, it becomes difficult for an individual to

For example, when presented with the data collected by a double-blind study he has the following reasons it may have turned up such negative results: a "test" is a confrontational situation and the patients may have been uncomfortable "proving themselves." He said it is possible that patients and/or facilitators may have frozen when asked to perform for researches. He also claimed that many patients experience severe "word forming" problems. By this he meant that, although the patient may recognize the object, he may be unable to retrieve its name from memory. Each of these could be true. However, to a person looking objectively, Dr. Biklen is clearly attempting to justify a persistent belief.

Sunstein argues that an echo-chamber effect results when people receive news from various media outlets. Sunstein asserts that, when a person gets their news from a medium which embraces similar ideological viewpoints, this person’s beliefs not only harden, but become situated on more extreme ends of the political spectrum. Three-stage academic studies conducted over the past three decades have found that balanced presentations of news, which carefully examine both sides to an argument, are more likely to increase polarization, rather than to reduce it. This is due to “biased assimilation”, where a person credits the information which supports their original view and dismisses information which opposes it. This also explains why it is difficult to force out false rumors and factual errors, since corrections can be self-defeating, leading people to having a firmer commitment to their erroneous beliefs. However, Sunstein argues, surprising validators can be used to allow people to reconsider information from a source they find credible. Sunstein concludes with arguing that what matters most is not what is being said, but who is saying

Overall, this work made me change my opinion couple of times but eventually I came to my own conclusion, I support both types of scepticism as moderate as radical. I think that everything should be doubted and rechecked. My personal experience shows me that almost nothing is what it seemed to be. Justified scepticism will always benefit if you do not push the

Do news, entertainment, and advertising media give the people what they want, or tell the people what they want? Can the media be objective, and should they be? How can it be that conservatives are convinced that the media have a left-wing bias while leftist are equally convinced the media have a right-wing bias” (Lazere 304)? These sort of issued have been debated for decades and sometimes have lead to some form of verbal and physical altercation.

In today’s society, remaining connected and knowledgeable of current events and the newest trends is vital to staying ahead in business, education, and social standing. This information is supplied to everyone through the internet, newspapers, television, and radio. One can tune into stations such as CNN, NBC, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, and many others (“SQs of Media Outlets”). In order to meet the needs of viewers, readers, and listeners, the ideal media system would contain accurate, quick information, with a purely impartial view on the facts as they are known. However, this modern media system has not maintained an objective view, pushing opinionated and slanted reporting onto the population in order to create profit and gain customers. The exploitation of information media for personal gain has created a toxic and inaccurate present, constant in today’s society.

While Moore writes his article ahead of Stroud, his view could be seen as a refutation of empirical skepticism. I’ll now interpret their argument using various examples and explain why I think Moore’s argument is weaker and how Stroud would reply to Moore’s view.

It is important for this upcoming generation to be well educated in these popular debate topics because eventually they will be the ones that will have control of what occurs in the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry, and the vaccination process. According to Anthony Doerr, author of the Boston Globe’s review on Denialism, “the only thing scarier than new technologies is refusing to have a healthy, informed, and civil discussion about them.” If our generation is not educated well in these debatable topics and how technologies function as well as their importance to humans, there is a lot that can be put at risk. Michael Specter organizes his arguments and evidence well. He presents a idea and then uses examples to support those ideas. He uses personal stories to inform the reader that he has had experience dealing with the issues he presents. He incorporates quotes from people that are experts in the topics, as well as providing statistics and numerous references from a various aspects of history to support the argument he is making. By organizing the chapters the way that he does, Specter makes it easy for the readers to get a well rounded understanding of these issues. The format that he uses is a model for research because he presents his ideas and is then able to support them effectively. In Denialism, Specter demonstrates how important it is to be able to provide supporting information from many areas, not just information on the topic that is being presented. For example, he uses examples from current events as well as referring to Thomas Robert Malthus who was alive in the 1800s. As a college writer, it is important to be able to take a position on an issue and then be able to provide examples and information to support the position. Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Harms the Planet and

‘The end goal of the Pyrrhonian skeptic is to promote suspense of judgment because they claim that it is in our opinion and personal truths that we develop desires, painful efforts, good and bad, fear, and disappointment. To accept everything as is, will bring bliss and peace of mind.’ The Pyrrhonian skeptic views skepticism as a good thing for they have the skill of finding for every argument and equal and opposing argument, this will bring suspension of judgment on any issue considered by the

For this study the population of conceptual interest is partisan news organizations. For the sampling frame I have selected the three stations of FOX News, MSNBC, and CNN. These three stations were selected due to their popularity relative to other sources of cable news. MSNBC represents the channel with a perceived liberal bias and FOX