| Gravitas |
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Soliloquy
in pursuit of well-tempered thought
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| Miscellaneous
articles relevant to critical thinking, and the commentary by Hunter
Finch
pertaining to those articles, are examples of aggregated news in the
blogosphere,
which in this case have mostly been posted to the "Critical Thinking in
the News" section of the Foundation for Critical Thinking website
(criticalthinking.org).
It is the FCT's mission to foster critical thinking throughout all
domains
and disciplines of inquiry, discourse and learning in our social
institutions. Leading
research
suggests, and many leading educators believe, critical thinking will
become
a dominant |
force in the world
only when,
and to the extent that, critical societies emerge. Critical societies
are
those for whom fair-minded critical thinking is a social value and thus
routinely cultivated in all citizens and respected in all social
practices.
One contributes to the emergence of critical thought as a social value
by making changes consistent with the integral concepts, standards and
best practices of critical thinking across all domains and disciplines
in one’s daily life. Intellectual integrity arrived at through open,
accurate,
clear, precise, fair and independent thought processes is at the very
core
of a well |
tempered
mind. It is also at the core of the values and character in a critical
society. As media are reflections of our collective values and
character,
they are also potentially significant in helping us shape and alter our
individual views. Thus, a running index to some of the news, discourse
and critique that contextualizes critical thinking in media as they
alter
and illuminate our times follows. Articles and commentary are of mixed
quality and significance and we leave it to the reader to assess them.
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Plea
Bargaining Continued
Gravitas -- December 14, 2007
by Hunter Finch
From
what I know about the Canadian and English systems, which is not much,
they do
seem to practice the concept of allowing a person to remain innocent
until
proven guilty by withholding names and evidence from the media until
after
trial. Yesterday's front-page news release of George
Mitchell's
409-page report on drug use in Baseball is a perfect example of what
I'm
talking about: The report is a collection of
"interviews," some
"evidence," and what Mitchell calls "corroborating
evidence." The bulk of evidence in the report was volunteered by Brian
McNamee, a trainer with the Yankees who worked with Roger Clemens – and
Kirk
Radomski, allegedly a dealer of steroids and human growth hormone – who
gave up
information in a plea bargain he struck with prosecuting attorneys.
We'll never
know for sure if any of this is true. But, worse, hundreds of names
listed in
the report, smeared by this procedural tactic, have never had their day
in
court. Even if they do get their day in court and are found innocent,
people
will never regain reputations they've lost. The court of public
opinion,
through a collaborative policy of convenience between government and
the media,
now finds them all guilty by association. Smear! It's not like high
performance
drugs in baseball isn't a big problem. Yet, assumptions by an
unthinking
government, media, and public disinclined to question charges in media
that
“everyone in baseball is on drugs” is much worse. Need
we revisit Joe McCarthy or HS Commager over and over
again? Circus!
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