And yes, for this week at least I am thinking of a non-Fox TV "news" anchor who seems to have memory problems. (The scare quotes are because I think pretty much all TV "news" deserves scare quotes, *possibly* excluding PBS. Possibly.) - walt crawford

Don't know what rhetoricians would call it, but in internet-speak it's often a subset of concern trolling: pretending to be concerned about BIG MORAL CRISIS in order to stop people talking about little moral issue, when you never actually pay attention to BIG MORAL CRISIS in any other context let alone do anything about it. --Oh, or it could be a subset of derailing. - Deborah Fitchett

I think it is a subset of derailing, but I suspect the Big List O' Named Logic Errors has a specific name for it. Unfortunately, I don't have the BLONLE. (Wayne B-T probably does and could probably nail this one from heart.) - walt crawford

I have thought it would make an interesting legal defense tactic (and has doubtless been tried): "We stipulate that our client shot a man in Reno, and that his motive was just to watch him die--but given the hundreds being massacred in [name country here], is this really such a big deal?" Or, "Yes, he embezzled a million dollars, but compared to Bernie Madoff he's a saint, so don't punish him." - walt crawford

Could it be this? Fallacy of relative privation – dismissing an argument due to the existence of more important, but unrelated, problems in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Back to just Joe

Joe: That sounds right. Never thought about Wikipedia as a place to find logical fallacies...thanks. (That last sentence could have more than one meaning.) - walt crawford

They have a nice list at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki.... I use it to try to figure out why various arguments fail when discussing OA. I'm sure other fallacies can be found scattered around the site. - Back to just Joe