Radio Trash Talk

The Illinois State Journal Register pounced on a comment made by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood when he criticized talk-radio "trash-talk." (full article)

The newspaper asked Springfield radio executive Kevan Kavanaugh of WMAY about the comment to which he responded saying he sees "nothing inappropriate about publicly discussing policy matters."

If this was a game show, the buzzer would be blaring and sign would drop down from the ceiling on a string. The sign says "OVER GENERALIZATION".

Logical error: Kavanaugh implied by this comment that LaHood was attacking all of talk-radio in general. Following this logic, one could infer by Kavaugh's statement that Ray LaHood was implying that all of talk-radio must be trash-talk by equating "trash-talk" with "publicly discussing policy matters."

In truth, LaHood was not being specific or general about his opinion of talk radio. Trash-talk is not conventionally associated as a general statement enveloping all of radio broadcasting. He would have to specifically say "All of talk-radio is trash-talk," which he did not.

• Trash-talk includes OVER-GENERALIZATIONS.

Another form of trash-talk is name-calling.

Name-calling can be calling something or someone stupid, crazy, way-out, far-left, far-right, fringe, unhinged, or saying that something stinks, sucks, or is described as generally terrible.

When you name-call, you are making a claim about someone or something. Every time you make such a claim, you must support your claim with Evidence.

For example, when Kirk Farah of WMAY doesn't like certain music, he tends to say that it sucks rather than saying he doesn't like it.

Because Kirk has the privilege of talking on the radio, he is regarded by most of his audience as an authority on whatever he talks about. Most of the listeners take him seriously simply because of this status.

If he said he didn't like it, that would be fine because most people understand that not everyone has the same personal tastes and such a statement does not need any supporting evidence, just an opinion will suffice in this case.

But, because he says certain types of music suck, Listeners may take him at his word and avoid that type of music. In rare cases, the listeners might never know that they actually like something because they were told that it sucked so they stay away from it.

Kirk has said on several occasions that MSNBC is "way-out there" without ever supporting this claim with any legitimate evidence.

• Name-calling without evidence is TRASH-TALK.

TRASH-TALK has another longer name. It's called a "Fallacy of Argumentation." You can read more about fallacies of argumentation at http://sageofspringfield.com/argument/home.html.