Today we are issuing our periodic newsletter Ogmius. In this issue I have an essay titled, “The Cherry Pick”. Here is an excerpt:

“Lawyers get paid considerable sums to do it. Journalists do it on a daily basis. According to their critics, President George Bush and his Administration do it routinely. I’m sure that I do it, and no doubt you do it as well. Everyone does it, so it must be OK, right?

‘It’ refers to the cherry pick — the careful selection of information to buttress a particular predetermined perspective while ignoring other information that does not. In other words, take the best and leave the rest. An obvious example of the cherry pick is the allegation that the Bush Administration emphasized those pieces of intelligence that supported its desire to invade Iraq. But if you look around, you’ll see it everywhere, embraced across ideological perspectives. And you’ll see it a lot in debate over highly politicized issues related to science and technology.”

Read the whole thing here.

Our newsletter can be found here in html and here in PDF. And you can subscribe here.