Monroe, Samantha; Teufel, Matthew; Wang, Bill; Yeam, Albert; Yeo, Stephanie
Period 6
Baloney Detector
11 September 2014
Baloney Detector
History has been filled with many incorrect and correct ideas, and some people make a commitment to figure out if an idea is true or false. Increasingly, however, many articles are written regarding false information, and the people who read these articles believe the given information and spread rumors instantly. In the article, “
Toxic, cancer­causing arsenic found in rice products ­­ even organic rice milk”, rice products on the market contain levels of toxic arsenic in many "all­natural" and organic rice products. We believe that this article is false because it is not written by an expert, the measurements are not clear, and the article has to be all true and not mostly true.
An article could be either biased or true; it sometimes depends on the person who writes about the current topic. In the article,
“
Toxic, cancer­causing arsenic found in rice products ­­ even organic rice milk” the writer used three other sources to state the facts. The article, “FDA test find arsenic in rice”, written by Monica Eng, is one out of the three sources that is used in the article,

“
Toxic, cancer­causing arsenic found in rice products ­­ even organic rice milk”.
We can prove that this article is not all true because it is written by a woman named Monica Eng. Eng is a columnist for a newspaper called Chicago Tribune.
Eng does not write about random topics, but she talks about food and health.
Monica Eng is only an authority who barely knows what she is talking about other than an expert who knows his facts well enough to write a whole book full of details. She just makes claims about the topic regarding arsenic rice.
Along with proving the article false by the different perspectives between an expert and an authority, we can prove that the article is false because the measurements are not clear. The article,
“
Toxic, cancer­causing arsenic found in rice products ­­ even organic rice milk” states different measurements from its source.
“
Toxic, cancer­causing arsenic found in rice products ­­ even organic rice milk” states, “More than 200 samples of dry rice, infant cereals, hot cereals, instant cereals, rice cakes and crackers, rice flour, rice drinks, rice syrup, and rice vinegar” which is not a clear measurement because it does not give the reader an exact number of samples. There could be 201 samples or 212 samples; the evidence from the text is very unclear. Measurable things can usually be a fact and can be a reason on why an article may be true. In this article, the measurements were not clear, so it resulted in evidence that may be hard to prove. Lastly, this article may be proved false because an article has to be ALL true not mostly true. An argument of a claim have to all be true or none of it can be true. “Toxic, cancer­causing arsenic found in rice products ­­ even organic rice milk” states,”The group is