Red herring

Park Kyung-sin, one of the nine commissioners at the Korea Communications Commission and a professor at Korea University in Seoul, has sparked controversy after posting on his blog screen captures containing photos of multiple penises published on other blogs. He is demanding freedom of expression after posting on his blog Gustave Courbet’s painting “The Origin of the World,” which shows a close-up of a vagina. Lucian Freud also painted a picture that vividly depicts the male genital.

Park is under criticism for posting on his blog photos that the other eight commissioners deemed “obscene materials” and had them deleted from the original blogs. He is attempting to blur the focus of the debate by crying freedom of expression.

The expression “red herring” means not only a smoked herring but also “something that distracts attention from the real issue,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Derived from the practice of drawing a red herring across a trail to confuse hunting dogs, a red herring, in logic, means diverting public attention to something that is not at issue.

One red herring method is to launch a character attack. For instance, when Christian doctrine is up for debate, one can negate it by referring to a pastor’s unethical behavior. Park said he obtained U.S. citizenship to avoid mandatory military service. The main opposition Democratic Party is under fire for having appointed him commissioner of the communications watchdog. To criticize Park’s draft dodging when the photos of genitals are issue, however, is a red herring-style character attack. Whether an American citizen has the right to tell Koreans what to do on a sensitive issue is a different matter.

The logical fallacy of a straw man is to bring up a topic far greater that the point at issue. For instance, the fallacy is committed when one rebuts an argument for the liberalization of beer consumption by saying any society that allows unlimited access to addictive materials will collapse. In this case, comprehensive addictive materials are used as a straw man for beer.

The issue involving Park is the violation of the principle that a commissioner has to accept a majority decision even if he opposes. Freedom of expression is a far more comprehensive issue. Different discussions can be made depending on whether the issue is an object of art. A red herring is frequently used in agitation.

Editorial Writer Song Pyeong-in (pisong@donga.com)