Ad Populum is a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it. In other words, it "appeals to the people." When I was younger, everytime I told my I wanted something just because all the "cool kids" have it or asked to do something because everyone was doing it, my mother always used to respond with the question, "If everyone was jumping off of a bridge would you do it too?" I always wanted to do the things that everyone was doing whether it be something good or bad just to be in the "in" crowd.
FOX News channel is a great example of ad populum because most watchers want to watch FOX because all of it's news is by popular choice. Since FOX is ad populum, it has some of the highest ratings within three of the major news channels. FOX tends to create stories or controversies for popular choice since the facts and the truth aren't always a subject to popular demand or choice. Rachel Maddow on the Rachel Maddow Show from MSNBC once spent a show talking about how FOX news is argumentum ad populum saying that, "FOX does what FOX does." She was trying to describe that saying she was wrong because more people watch FOX is an argumentum ad populum stating, "If many believe so, it is so."
Thank you for educating me on the the Ad Populum fallacy, I loved it, and you are a great writer! I had no clue Fox News is so "people appealing". Keep up the good work :)
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