Logical Fallacies & Political Communications

Not unexpectedly, Jaleel Bianco seizes upon Councilor Ercellin's evasion of his call for his action. Challenger Bianco tweets a stinging rebuke: "Ercellini refuses to address his "strategy" for costing Dawes a lot of money for the privilege of delaying construction of Triple F by 6-10 months.   Is he trying to create more work for his fellow lawyers?” As Ercellini's advisor, you suggest that he should not respond to the specifics of the tweet but should try to discredit Bianco who is gaining some traction in the local social  media.  Your client agrees and tells you to review Bianco's background (see the first blog post) and capitalize on some fact, no matter how insignificant, that will make him seem less connected to Dawes or less able to suggest ways to manage the proposed Triple F store development. You do some of your own investigating and uncover a note in Ercellini's college files suggesting that Bianco had once failed to properly and full...

          Later that same day, Challenger Bianco publishes a website which reads like a thesis on urban planning. He explains how zoning laws cannot be changed to stop a project which a city knows is underway.  Bianco reviews the ten most recent court cases in which developers (like Triple F and other big box retailers) have sued the cities which were delaying approval of their permits, won court orders forcing the cities to issue the permits and awarded the developers large sums for their legal fees.  He then provides his own analysis of what Triple F's legal expenses would be and areas that the store might agree to some form of compromise before final plans are created for the store.      He tweets a link to his website (JustBeHonestErcellini.net) and includes the following message:      "If #PandaerErcellini won't tell his folks the truth, I will: neighbors can likely get some improvements from Triple F if they n...

     Challenger Jaleel Bianco quickly responds to Councilor Ercellini's slippery slope argument.  He publishes a  meme with Ercellini's head superimposed on a panda referring to him as a "panda-er" because Ercellini is pandering to his constituents' interest in fighting the grocery store.      Using an APPEAL TO EMOTION, tweet the response to the meme.

     Dawes, Massachusetts is a mid-size city just north of Boston along the route most traffic from Boston's northern suburbs takes to reach Logan Airport. The city is run by a Mayor and a six-member city council; each councilor is elected from a particular geographic district.      City Councilor Steve Ercellini is facing a tough re-election campaign.  His challenger is Jaleel Bianco, a twenty-four-year old who moved to Dawes when he was starting ninth grade.  He attended college at MIT, living on-campus (which is 20 minutes from Dawes) and graduated with honors with a B.S in Urban Science and a minor in Environmental Science.       Councilor Ercellini represents a district in which a multinational grocery store chain (Food! Food! Food! or "Triple F") has agreed to buy the land on which a car dealership (Revere Chrysler) has operated for more than thirty years.  Revere Chrysler occupies more than four acres of la...