After reading through Fisher’s article, Maddow and Stewart appear to be quite the critical thinkers of their time. Fisher states “Critical thinking clearly requires the interpretation and evaluation of observations, communications and other sources of information,” which we see from Maddow and Stewart in their TV programs. Both present news in a form that is still considered somewhat untraditional but have maintained fairly high ratings against the more traditional forms of news. Maddow and Stewart are forced to interpret and evaluate the information they need to present but present the information with their own twist. Fisher says the tradition of critical thinking is “all about improving on our own thinking by considering how we think in various contexts now, seeing a better model and trying to move our own practice towards that better model,” Maddow and Stewart have presented a better model of informing their audience of issues and news in what they believe will better inform the public.
Critical thinking in relation to the epithets seems to be a bit of a stretch. Fisher does mention the idea of “Crtico-creative thinking” and states that “critical thinking is a kind of evaluative thinking – which involves both criticism and creative thinking – and which is particularly concerned with the quality of reasoning or argument which is presented in support of a believe of a course of action” which could include the epithets that were used. These epithets were used by people in support of what they believed was right, however, I would not consider this the best example of critical thinking. Although the senators and such may have believed they were being creative in insulting and throwing around terms such as baby killer, their actions only showed immaturity and lacked a thorough evaluation of the consequences of their actions. Instead of the public believing that these individuals used such slander to help their cause, we just view them as immature adults who haven’t learned how to critically think up better ways to argue.
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I have to disagree. Republicans are very good at using a web of fear and lies to construct a false reality. Their mass hysteria is cleverly constructed to discredit democrats. Think about how much power they lost when Obama came into power. These people represent billions of dollars and allot of corporations. They will lie, cheat, steal, and use violence to regain power over the country. It's not a child crying out in the dark, it is a wolf waiting to pounce.
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