That doesn't mean I'm excluding the possibility that it really is Mandela these lunatics are after. I'd also like you to consider the possibility that these people intend to attack both Mandela and myself. I'd like you to read the report with that in mind, Scheepers. One is that it's me, the president, who is the intended victim.

Let us imagine two different sets of circumstances. 'Let us assume there are red herrings laid out in appropriate places. ''There is something in the report that disturbs me,' said. Of course, red herrings are also used in fictional mediums, such as in mystery novels. This was a stinky ('pungent') red herring indeed, according to the author.

Nor is the red herring within a red herring about single sourced stories really relevant either if your source is good enough, then the story is too.' - 'Labour's Phoney War,' The Guardian , June 28, 2003Īccording to the author of this The Guardian piece, the individual in question, Alastair Campbell-former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's director of communications-managed to use a red herring to turn an argument as to whether the UK should be engaged in the Iraq War into a discussion of how the issue was being covered in the press.

The BBC's reporting, though important, is not in fact the real issue that is the strength of the case for action against Iraq. Campbell has achieved is largely a classic use of a very pungent red herring. In the space of a couple of days, Alastair Campbell has managed to turn an argument about the way the government presented its case for war in Iraq into an entirely different dispute about the way the BBC covered what was going on in Whitehall at the time.

Example of red herring fallacy