Face the fact, and stop misteaching grammar

NAIROBI: A fallacy is a false idea that undermines a sound argument. There are a number of fallacies but the common ones are faulty generalisations, false authority, red herring, straw man, and attacking the arguer instead of the argument. Columnist Philip Ochieng took issue with some of my views last week and caused some confusion.  It’s important, therefore, to clear the air .

First, a brief background. The other day Ochieng claimed that the verb ‘prioritise’ was non-existent. On September 12, 2015, he also said the word ‘than’ could only be a conjunction — never a preposition. I felt that it would be irresponsible to fail to correct these factual errors, because the media have a social obligation to serve the society. Unfortunately, my response triggered a harsh response characterised by several inaccuracies.