Post Hoc Reasoning

Post Hoc Reasoning- Good Evening Arizona

As I was watching “Good Evening Arizona” I came across a few logical fallacies. The one that stood out most to me was post hoc reasoning. This is explained in Technical Communication by “An argument that claims because A precedes B, A caused B” (Markel). 

"The warm and dry weather is setting us up for a tough allergy season. April Warnecke has more on why mother natures is about to make allergy season pretty miserable for a whole lot of Arizonans." 

In the quotes seen above, the newscast is stating that the dry and warm weather is the cause of this seasons allergies. They are also claiming that because it is dry and warm they can already predict a “miserable” allergy season. This is post hoc reasoning because it is saying dry weather is the cause of a bad allergy season and not taking into consideration other factors and causes. A fallacy is defined as a mistake in reasoning; I believe the news has failed to make clear reasoning when discussing allergies and weather. 

Ad Misericordia: Focus on the Family

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/socialissues/defending-your-values/dignity-of-human-life.aspx

Pro Life, Pro-Dignity. This article and video makes the logical fallacy Ad Misericordia (Appeal to emotion/pity) on the assumption that if you are Pro-Choice, you are "Anti-Dignity", going so far as to say Anti-Human. This video also makes various other logical fallacies (black and white/bifurcation), as well as the fallacy of taking thousands of year old contextually anachronistic text as unquestionable truth etc etc