AP’s Latest Anti-Bush Article Makes Amateurish Error
Charles Johnson
Sun May 6, 2007 at 10:20 am PDT • Views: 235
The Associated Press long ago dropped any pretense of being unbiased about the Bush administration, and as a matter of policy, they’ve been doing everything possible to damage the war effort.
And in their latest openly biased story they show that they’re also hiring illiterates as writers, as Deb Riechmann makes a beginner’s mistake and misuses the term “begs the question:” White House searches for war czar.
WASHINGTON - Now that the White House is searching for a “war czar,” it begs the question of who has been coordinating U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan the past four years.
Definition: begs the question.
An argument that improperly assumes as true the very point the speaker is trying to argue for is said in formal logic to “beg the question.” Here is an example of a question-begging argument: “This painting is trash because it is obviously worthless.” The speaker is simply asserting the worthlessness of the work, not presenting any evidence to demonstrate that this is in fact the case. Since we never use “begs” with this odd meaning (“to improperly take for granted”) in any other phrase, many people mistakenly suppose the phrase implies something quite different: that the argument demands that a question about it be asked—raises the question. If you’re not comfortable with formal terms of logic, it’s best to stay away from this phrase, or risk embarrassing yourself.
Frank says: