Close-up of a brown cat journalist with blue glasses holding a microphone and a cropped photo, confronting Duchess with the loaded question "So what made you decide to assault a helpless kitten?"

Loaded Question Fallacy: The Sneaky Journalist

Duchess is a villian! There is photographic evidence of her attacking a kitten!

A cat journalist holding a microphone confronts Duchess with a cropped photo and asks "So what made you decide to assault a helpless kitten?" — Duchess responds "WHAT?!"
Duchess thinks back to what actually happened: a chaotic alley scene showing a small white kitten, a fleeing dog, and Duchess near a rubbish bin — the full uncropped story
The GizmoNews journalist holds up the photo and says "I don't even know how to respond to that..." as Duchess looks on coolly

Aaaaand GizmoNews cropped the photo... Fake News!

Want to learn more about the Loaded Question fallacy? Check out our activity pack for fun activities that help you spot this common logical fallacy.

Loaded Question in a Nutshell

A loaded question hides an assumption inside itself. Answer it either way and you've already accepted something you never agreed to.

"So what made you decide to assault a helpless kitten?" Notice what it does. It doesn't ask IF Duchess did anything. It assumes she did, and asks WHY. Say yes, you're guilty. Say no, you're still guilty - you've just denied the specific assault. The trap is built into the question before you open your mouth.

Except Duchess had the full photo. Which GizmoNews somehow forgot to show.

That's the fallacy. The question comes pre-loaded. It works best when the audience doesn't see what got left out of the frame.

See all 24 fallacies in What Are the Most Common Logical Fallacies?

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