If I wanted to undercut, diminish, and/or destroy an opinion I didn’t agree with, I might start with telling you all about my bon-a-fides. I would begin by highlighting my credentials. For example, I might point out that I am a Distinguished professor. In the College of Technical stuff. At the largest university in the state. In other words, I want everyone to know that I am really smart and am very accomplished in a challenging discipline.
The opponent? Well, he could be very bright but he doesn’t have credentials equivalent to mine to prove that. Therefore, as a reasonable person, you must conclude that what I say is more factual than what he says. I’m really smart you know and have got all that learnin’ and a paper trail along with many diplomas to prove it.
I would then quote a source that would, of course, have as its tenets and goals positions emphasizing “non-partisanship and fairness, transparency of sources, transparency of funding and organization, transparency of methodology and open and honest corrections policy.” Like, oh, let’s say the “International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).”
Not only would I have established my superior credentials, but I also would have added an impeccable source that supports not only my brilliance but also the positions on issues I hold. The argument is over. There is nothing more to be said. I and the unrefutable source have conquered.
In the 17 June 19 edition of the Fillmore County Journal, that is essentially what we got from a writer maligning an earlier editorial written by Jeff Erding. Except the author didn’t tell us some important details about the IFCN. Non-partisan and all that other fluff? Not quite.
Who runs the IFCN? Well that would be the Poynter Institute. That’s funded by George Soros. IFCN also gets funding from the leftist Omidyar Network. Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, set that up. And that network has ties with the Open Society Foundation and the Tides Foundation, both funded by Soros as well. The Tides Foundation itself is about as extreme left as any organization can be.
If you know anything about Soros, you know that he does not have our best interests at heart. Yours or mine or Americas. He is a vile man with malign intentions and cannot be trusted. The same goes for what he supports and funds. A lot of what we have gotten, get, and will get from his organizations is just plain fake news.
By the way, journalist Andy Ngo recently suffered a brain hemorrhage when he was attacked by Antifa thugs in Oregon. Who do you think another Soros funded organization, Media Matters, stood up for? Andy Ngo or Antifa? They defended Antifa. Gives you a good indication of what sorts organizations Soros funds and what kind of man he is.
Is IFCN credible? Really questionable. Unfortunately, the learned professor’s faith in it and himself isn’t entirely credible either.
Kim Stelson says
In “The Professor forgot to tell us something” (FCJ, Monday, July 8, 2019), Col. Stan Gudmundson resorts to an old rhetorical trick: If you don’t have the facts on your side, attack the source. The facts are these: the Earth is getting warmer, and emissions of carbon dioxide caused by human activities are the major cause. The article that Jeff Erding cited was indeed published in 1922, but it has little to do with whether or not global climate change is caused by human activities. As I stated in my previous letter, “Every single one of the facts Erding states is blatantly false or misleading.”
Properly understood, science does not depend on politics or religion. Through a tenuous and convoluted causal chain, Gudmundson connects my claim to George Soros, the boogieman of all conservatives. First of all, the source I cited was snopes.com, not IFCN, and snopes.com is a recognized credible source for debunking false claims. Even if George Soros funds the Poynter Institute, and the Poynter Institute funds IFCN, none of this has anything to do with climate change. The earth simply doesn’t care if George Soros funds the Poynter Institute.
The earth is getting warmer. This is true whether Col. Gudmundson, Jeff Erding, or I believe it or not. We are in an existential crisis because of the effects of climate change, and it is necessary for people of all faiths and political opinions to band together to mitigate its effects.