09 A logical fallacy in popular media

One logical fallacy that comes up very often in the media is that of "post hoc ergo propter hoc". This loosely translates to because of "this", "this other thing" happened. The most recent example of this I can think of, and one that I care about, is parents choosing whether or not to vaccinate their kids. A few years back Jenny McCarthy spearheaded this movement for parents not to vaccinate their kids and unfortunately, it seems to have caught on more than i would like. She had a very unfortunate event happen to her when she took he child to recieve a vaccination, and not long after it was determind that her child was autistic. She immediately assumed that the vaccine gave her child autism because there were a few other cases of this correlation being seen. However, after years of research there is still no link between vaccinations and autism. She fell victim to this idea that correlation is causation. Because one thing happened after another, it was the first one that caused the second. It happens very frequently unfortunately and is proof that you can't always look for the easiest answer to your problem. There are so many variables that go into each situation, especially something so delicate as a child showing symptoms of a disease. The media chose to blow this up at the time and are now having to report on the recent measles outbreak, due to parents not vaccinating their kids. Whenever you run into a situation where you hear the media talking about something causing something else, make sure you do the research yourself and look deeper. Chances are these days, that they haven't.