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But what am I going to do, my parents will kill me Officer, I was speeding. Cobbett was accusing the press of intentionally using a fallacy to distract the public.Īuthors frequently use red herrings to confuse and surprise readers, or to create suspense. For example, Flight of the Amazon Queen confronts players with a gorilla blocking the path. Example of Red Herring I know I cheated on the test, Mrs. Cobbett criticized the press for prematurely reporting Napoleon’s defeat, and compared that act to using strong-smelling, smoked red herrings to distract dogs from another scent. All red herrings are examples of irrelevant distractions-not examples of flawed logic.The journalist William Cobbett is credited with originating the term “red herring” in an 1807 story. An informal fallacy means that an argument has a flaw in reasoning rather than logic. Red herrings are examples of informal fallacies, rather than formal fallacies. This fallacy occurs when someone rejects or criticizes another point of view based on the personal characteristics, ethnic background, physical appearance, or other non-relevant traits of the person who holds it. Red herrings are introduced to divert and deceive readers. An ad hominem fallacy uses personal attacks rather than logic. Most often, the term red herring is used to refer to a 'false clue'a piece of evidence that misleads readers to believe that a crime (or other. Done well, the reader will feel surprised by the truth and will enjoy the misdirection, having learned something useful about the setting or the characters along the way. Here’s a quick and simple definition: A red herring is a piece of information in a story that distracts readers from an important truth, or leads them to mistakenly expect a particular outcome. This technique involves getting the reader to believe a false conclusion about the plot. A red herring can also be a powerful way to engage a reader’s interest, by hinting at explanations that may not be true.