Annotated Bibliography #1
Bob Greenspan. “Morality TV: ABC, The Bachelor, and the American Decline.” Blogcritics.org. November 12, 2007. 11/12/07.
In the article titled, “Morality TV: ABC, The Bachelor, and the American Decline.”, Bob Greenspan employs many strategies/ in an attempt to explain the loss of morality and respect in the American culture. The main goal of this essay is to make the reader believe and feel the same anger and disappointment towards America’s reality television programming. He believes reality television is to blame for the loss, and believes that shows like ABC’s The Bachelor is not only evidence but a prime example of America’s “morality downfall.” Greenspan achieves this goal by focusing on the show The Bachelor and using some logical fallacies. Such fallacies include non-sequitur, and emotionally loaded terms. Although the author uses some logical fallacies, they are essential, and ultimately successful in making the readers agree with his beliefs thus, accomplishing his goal.
The first logical fallacy the author uses in this essay is non-sequtuir. In the beginning of the article, the author presents the reader with some headlines that made the news earlier that week. The author stated, “There was a horrible story in the news on November 7, 2007 about a student in Finland gunning down eight other students and teacher…” This was non-sequtuir because the television show The Bachelor and a shooting in Finland are completely irrelevant. The author found a way of correlating the school shootings and the loss of morality America’s youth seems to be facing with the broadcasting of the show The Bachelor. He states, “I mention this because we have had a moral breakdown in our society.” Greenspan goes on to make the assertion that America’s lack of values is best seen in the hit love/dating television reality show The Bachelor. The shooters in these tragedies made it known of their plans, and yet nobody did a thing to stop...