Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 163. The noun phrase today is
red herring. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone says that something
is a red herring, it is something used as a diversion to distract one from the
main issue. So to distract your attention away from what they don't want you to
look at. All right. Let's continue. The fish, herring was naturally a silvery color.
Okay. They only turn red when they are smoked. In former times, this was done to
preserve the fish for many months. Of course, these dead fish had a very strong
smell and because they had such a small strong odor, they were sometimes used to
train hound dogs in the 17th century for things like Fox hunts. They also used
other dead animals like a dead cat or something to train them as well.
Some say escaped prisoners would use red herrings to throw off the scent and
confuse tracking dogs. However this may be questionable. Well it could be
questionable because how does an escaped prisoner get a herring to begin
with ? Or did they plan to have a herring ? I don't know it's not so easy that he
would have time to get it, but anyway some people do say this. Let's continue. All right.
They say the actual origin could be directly linked to an English journalist
named, William Cobbert. In the 1800s, he wrote a fictional story about when he
was a boy. He used a red herring to throw off tracking dogs. I think there
was you know , a story about them trying to find a hare or rabbit or something. He
threw them off with this because that smell is so strong. He used this story to
criticize other journalists as a metaphor. Like a way of comparing ... for
them allowing themselves to be misled by fake information and distracted from the
real important matters. Yeah. Fake information like you know, even at this
time there was such a thing as fake news. So they, they let themselves be fooled by
that. And he was kind of making fun of them and trying to write a metaphor
about that. Okay. Good. Red herrings are also used in fiction,
especially murder mystery novels. One such example is Agatha Christie. Yes.
She's very famous for these. " And Then There Were None. " I actually read this
book when I was young too. It was a very cool one. But let's continue. The first example
will kind of explain this from the book. Agatha Christie used a red herring
by having one of the characters fake his own death. Yeah. This book "And Then
There Were None" I think there was ten people on an island and one of them was
a murderer, he kept murdering them. And everybody didn't know who the real
murderer was. And they know that well whoever got killed of course they weren't
the murderer. But in this case before, just before near the end when it was just
getting down to a few. The murderer faked his own death to throw the others off, so
that they wouldn't think you know they wouldn't figure out it was him. And even
the last two people left thinking well the other one must be the murderer.
Even though neither one of those was the murderer. So ,so there was a red herring.
It was to throw the reader off. Okay. So that it was a distraction. It was a
diversion that could be a red herring too. All right. Let's continue.
Number two here. Some people think the WHO.. Okay and the media's push about the
coronavirus came from a wet market could be a red herring. Like look over here.
Don't pay attention there. You know as you know, in relation to all the other
conspiracy theories of you know was it a bio weapon ? Did somebody else start it ?
You know some people think that you know maybe they're distracting you with this
story. So you don't think of the other stories. All right. Number three here. This
is just a basic example. This issue is nothing more than a red herring. It is a
complete distraction from the matter at hand . That's the way that you might hear it
used. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. I hope it was informative.
Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.