“Thus, cherry picking is used metaphorically to indicate the act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position.” ~Wikipedia
“Cherry picking”—the metaphor that inspired movies like Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and an Inconvenient Truth has supported arguments for years. While picking the delightful fruit, I was always taught to choose the best cherries; this is proportional to a politician using propaganda to sway the public opinion of the accuracy of their views. Through the revealing of select information, an author, producer, politician misinforms their audience of the “whole picture.”
Filters like Academy-Award winning director producer Michael Moore utilizes anecdotes and sections of letters, legal documents, and private conversations to uncover one side of the story. Moore’s films, Sicko, Bowling For Columbine, and Fahrenheit 9/11, provide viewers with information on critical global issues. For example, Sicko addresses Health Care in the United States versus Canada, England, Germany, and Cuba. He choose to show only the pros of national health care systems of these other countries and only cons of the United States’ private health care system. Although, Moore provides truthful evidence, he fails to provide his audience with the full story. Therefore, to “prove” that United States’ health care system, Moore chooses to deceive his audience as opposed to addressing U.S. Health Care truthfully and completely.
So, even if I show you all the great cherries I picked, doesn’t mean that those represent all that were on the tree. --My two-cents for this week.
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1 comment:
You have a good perspective that the cherry picking concept. They are very good fruits. I love them. This is almost, similar, to making a contradiction to one side of an issue before you actually understand the opposing side. This goes back to that one writing prompt about understanding one's opinion before contradicting them.
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