How Does News Influence Critical Thinking

One of the biggest influences that shapes human thinking is the news. According to Dr. Gerald Nosich, an academic in critical thinking and author of the book, Learning to Think Things Through: a guide to critical thinking across the curriculum, news directly and indirectly acts as an impediment to our critical thinking. Nosich proclaims that while the news can directly influence thinking if it is perceived firsthand, news indirectly influences everyone because news is embedded in everyday conversation. If news can be an impediment to our critical thinking it should be examined beyond its face value. To inspect information, Nosich establishes the seven standards of critical thinking that can be used to filter out reasoning that does not exemplify

Accuracy is a significant standard as inaccuracies can completely discredit a source. The O’Reilly Factor proudly states that the show is the number one cable news show. As stated in The Huffington Post article, “CNN Sees Big Jump in Q1 Ratings, But Fox News Still Tops All”, The O’Reilly Factor has been the number one cable news show at eight p.m. weekdays for sixty consecutive quarters. For fifteen years, The O’Reilly Factor has been number one. This is significant because by being the number one news show, O’Reilly has more influence than any other broadcaster. O’Reilly must be heavily scrutinized because of his control over the market. In regard to accuracy in O’Reilly’s reporting, during O’Reilly’s segment on Syria, he comments on the collapse of U.S. foreign policy and the disregard to American interests by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. As evident in the title of the article by British news company, The Daily Telegraph, “Russia kills US-backed Syrian rebels in second day of air strikes as Iran prepares for ground offensive.” O’Reilly’s criticism of President Obama’s foreign policy is based from accurate reports that Russia is in fact killing the American funded rebels who are rebelling against the denounced Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. The Dailey Telegraph article includes quotes from Senator John McCain, who also confirmed that Russian air strikes have killed CIA trained Syrian rebels.

Nosich states: “Your thinking about a question or an issue is sufficient when you’ve reasoned it out thoroughly enough for the purpose at hand, when it is adequate for what is needed, when you’ve taken account of all necessary factors” (Nosich 144). During the discussion of gun control, O’Reilly brings on security expert and former U.S. Navy Seal, Jonathon Gilliam. O’Reilly states he will play devil’s advocate as Gilliam argues against gun control policy. Gilliam states that America has extremist and a mental health issues. To decrease these mass shooting, Gilliam asserts that we must have a more intensive screening process. O’Reilly points out that more screening processes would not work when, like the case in Oregon and others, mothers and families do not turn their children over to either mental health services or authorities. The discussion then shifts to gun free zones, Gilliam states gun free zones are ineffective. In the case of Oregon, the school was a gun free zone and the school did not have armed guards. Through O’Reilly and Gilliam’s discussion they arrive at the points that law enforcement should have easier channels to go through to investigate suspicious people and that if gun free zones are established armed guards should be provided to prevent negligence. These points were derived by Gilliam and O’Reilly’s adequate reasoning and exploring all the