--- Daniel Mayer maveric149@yahoo.com wrote:
Ray Saintonge wrote:
"Many people regard ..." carries a strong POV wallop It applies the
logical fallacy that if a significant majority consider something to
be
true, then it must in fact be true.
No it doesn't. If something is true, then it is true. If in fact a great many people say and think a certain way, then the statement needs to be made.
It isn't the truth of it that I am questioning. I am questioning that the "statement needs to be made". Consider whether you would like to see the statement "Some people consider that his teeth are crooked" in (say) the article on George Bush even if the truth of that statement could be positively established. I guess that you would take it out, which (if I'm right) shows that the mere truth of a statement is not really your criterion for including it. You must have an additional reason. Not referring specificially to yourself, I suggest that the main reason that people include statements like "Some people believe that X is a terrorist" is that they WANT to attach that label to that person and not because they have a disinterested intention to report a fact. They should instead devote more effort to reporting hard data about X ("X has been responsible for many attacks on civilians, including ... and ..."), then readers who like labels like "terrorism" will have no trouble attaching them. I think this shows respect for the intelligence of the reader.
Zero.
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