A Need for Rhetoric

Usually people dislike the idea of rhetoric, equating it with empty communications. But it is actually the study of how to frame and understand arguments. A Scientific American article suggests that people fall prey to "reasoning errors" in the media, which explains why, for example, that nearly half of Americans in 2003 falsely thought that there was solid evidence of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda:

News shows often have an implicit bias that may motivate the portrayal of facts and opinions in misleading ways, even if the information presented is largely accurate. Nevertheless, by becoming familiar with how spokespeople can create false impressions, media consumers can learn to ignore certain claims and thereby avoid getting duped. We have detected two general types of fallacies—one of them well known and the other newly identified—that have permeated discussion of the Iraq War and that are generally ubiquitous in political debates and other discourse.

I think it is again time for schools to teach formal rhetoric. Why not let people learn what a bandwagon or straw man tactic is?