Affirmative Case and Support

Joshua Mirth PARADE, Wisconsin
Aff for Regionals:
Table of Contents
Aff for Regionals:......................................................................................................................................1
Affirmative Constructive.............................................................................................................2
1AR Responses:....................................................................................................................................4
Quotations:...................................................................................................................................4
Blocks:.........................................................................................................................................5
Contention 1:................................................................................................................................7
Contention 2A..............................................................................................................................8
Contention 2B..............................................................................................................................9
Extensions:.................................................................................................................................12
Accurate reporting............................................................................................................12
Diversity...........................................................................................................................14
Elimination of bias...........................................................................................................16
1{17} Aff for Regionals: Aff for Regionals:

Affirmative Constructive
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that, “[T]he best test of truth is the power of
the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.” Because of competition's role in
discerning the truth I stand Resolved: that competition is superior to cooperation as a means of
achieving excellence.
Let me begin by defining a few key terms in the resolution:
rd
(All from Webster's New International Dictionary, 3 Edition, Unabridged)
Competition: The act or action of seeking to gain what another is seeking to gain at the same time
Superior: Of higher degree or rank: taking precedence
Cooperation: To act or work with another or others to a common end
Excellence: Possessing good qualities in an eminent degree
Next, I would like to analyze the resolution. There are two key things to note:
1) The resolution does not require me, the affirmative, to reject the reality or benefits of
cooperation completely. Instead, I will argue that when we compare their overall impacts, we
find that competition provides us with comparatively greater good than cooperation, And
2) Excellence, admittedly, is a rather nebulous term. Therefore, the values presented in today’s
debate will provide us with a measuring stick for understanding the concept of “excellence.”
To that end, I present my value: knowledge of the truth. Truth can be defined as “Conformity with fact
1
or reality” , and I believe that knowing that reality is a fundamental component of excellence. I will
explain further in:
[250]
Contention 1: Knowledge of the Truth is Excellent
I defined excellence as “the state of possessing good qualities in an eminent degree”. Knowledge of
the truth is excellent because it is an extremely good and morally desirable quality. But it is also
foundational to other good qualities. We cannot consistently act excellently, or to our full potential,
without first knowing the truth. As an example, let me call to mind the January earthquake in Haiti.
Many people have wished to exercise excellent qualities like compassion and selflessness by donating
to the relief efforts. However, these efforts have been thwarted by scammers pretending to be
legitimate organizations. To pursue excellent goals, people found it necessary to double check where
their money was going and find out the truth. This general principle is universal: we can only act
excellently when we first know the truth.
Now that the importance of the truth has been established, let me move on to:
[159]
Contention 2: Competition creates knowledge of the truth
To understand why, let's think about what competition is: striving against opponents to attain a goal.
2{17} Aff for Regionals: Affirmative Constructive

This implies two things: one, that there is a conflict of interest or opinion, and two, that each side is
trying to outdo the other. Both of these results help to achieve knowledge of the truth. Having
different and conflicting viewpoints allows us to see all different sides of an issue, which in turn allows
us to make more informed judgments. Striving to outdo gives each side in a conflict an incentive to tell
the truth because a lie would be more easily discredited.
Contrast this with cooperation, working with others toward a common goal, which implies agreement
and a single viewpoint; a position which limits the number of views presented, and eliminates striving
against another. Clearly, competition better creates knowledge of the truth.
If all that seems a little abstract, let me present two examples.
[160]
A) First, The United States' judicial system.
Our court system is based upon what is known as “Adversarial Justice.” In a court case, the
prosecution and the defendant each present their interpretation of the case. Both lawyers cross-
examine the witnesses, and try to explain the evidence in their sides' favor. This competition allows
everyone involved to critically evaluate the issue, to look for any and every flaw in either side's
arguments. Without the opposing viewpoints provided by competition, the jury would have no reason
to question the first explanation they heard. With competition, our legal system promotes digging into
the issues and revealing the truth.
Cooperation, however, can undermine that system. Sometimes cases do not go to court; instead, the
parties agree to an out-of-court-settlement. The accused often chooses this route because they wish to
hide the truth of their actions, and by cooperating with the prosecution and accepting their terms of
settlement, this can be avoided. The truth, however, is never discovered.
[163]
B) News Media.
A second area where we can see competition's superior ability to reveal the truth is in the news media.
Competition gives news sources an incentive to report information accurately because if a competitor
reveals that a story was false or presented inaccurately, the deceptive firm's reputation will suffer, and
people will be less likely to get their news from them in the future. To confirm comparable findings in
their research, Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro of the National Bureau of Economic Research,
cite the 2004 scandal surrounding a CBS news story based on forged documents, which alleged that
then-president George W. Bush disobeyed orders while serving in the National Guard. ABC and USA
Today both challenged the credibility of the sources, and CBS eventually had to retract the story and
issue an apology for fear of losing viewers. In the same way, competition ensures that factual stories
are reported with less bias, and that subjective issues will generally be covered from all perspectives.
[167]
To conclude, I stand in agreement with Judge Holmes, that competition is the best means of discerning
the truth and attaining excellence, whether it be in the courtroom, the media, or in our daily lives. I
therefore encourage you to affirm the resolution: that competition is superior to cooperation, as a
means of achieving excellence.
[960]
3{17} Aff for Regionals: Affirmative Constructive

1AR Responses:
A lie is stronger when everyone tells the same lie.
Reputation is one of your greatest assets in an industry ripe with competition.
Quotations:
Value Defense
“When a man is buying a basket of strawberries it can profit him to know that the bottom half of it is
rotten.” - Mark Twain.
As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities. - Voltaire
“Truth alone triumphs” – National Motto of India
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them." -- Isaac
Asimov
“The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness,
beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics
built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.” - Albert Einstein
“Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coattails.” -
Clarence Darrow (American Lawyer)
Contentions
“As a general rule, if you want to get at the truth, hear both sides and believe neither.” -Josh Billings
(Humorist)
“Let [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open
encounter?” - John Milton, Areopagitica
“Just as Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' will ensure that the best product emerges from free competition,
so too will an invisible hand ensure that the best ideas emerge when all opinions are freely permitted to
compete.” - Frederick Schauer, Professor at the Virginia University of Law, 1982
“Truth springs from argument amongst friends.” - David Hume (Scottish philosopher, economist, and
historian)
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” -Albert Einstein
“It is a Principle among Printers, that when Truth has fair Play, it will always prevail over Falsehood;
therefore, thought they have an undoubted Property in their own Press, yet they willingly allow, that
any one is entitled to the Use of it, who thinks it necessary to offer his Sentiments on disputable Points
to the Public, and will be at the Expense of it: If what is thus publish'd be good, Mankind has the
Benefit of it; If it be bad...the more 'tis made publick, the more the Weakness is expos'd, and the greater
disgrace falls on the Author.” - Benjamin Franklin
4{17} 1AR Responses: 1AR Responses:

Blocks:
A2: Bad people knowing truth, means truth isn't good. (e.g. Nazis knowing where Jews were
hiding would be bad).
Did the Nazis allow ideas to compete? No. They had a hard party line and everyone who disagreed
was going to die. Were the Nazis ideas right? No, they were false. Therefore, this is an example of
people eliminating competition, and eliminating the truth. That's my point in contention 3.
On this point, that wouldn't make knowledge of the truth bad. If they were to truly seek the truth,
they would have to question the rightness of their own actions, and if they did that they would
realize that their actions are wrong. So giving the Nazis a greater understanding of the truth would
probably cause them to not be Nazis, and so not harm people. The problem here is too little truth,
not too much.
A2: Truth can't be known completely
CX: can your value be had completely?
All I have to do is advance it, just like you.
A2: Legal system fails
Alternate causality, legal technicalities are a common cause of “failure”.
“One lawyer might be a lot better than the other, he could win even if he's wrong”. Then they need
better competition!
A2: Cooperation encourages hiding the truth in order to win
But it also encourages opponents to dig out the truth to gain an advantage. The two cancel each other
out, and in fact create a cycle of increased digging. Hiding the truth can actually spark the visibility of
far more truth.
A2: Diversity of opinions in a group leads to the truth
Exactly, that’s competition. Different people want their opinion to win out, thus they get to the truth.
They may be acting in a group, but that doesn’t mean they are completely cooperating.
A2: The moral obligation to act on the truth is more important
Precedes. We cannot act morally, or excellently until the truth is known. The truth must come first. It
is more important.
A2: Openness with evidence in a court leads to truth/critical evaluation
Sure, it helps, but in order to compete, lawyers have to present evidence anyhow. Requiring that it all
be open before hand just makes competition easier, smoother. It's an aid to competition, not a superior
means.
A2: Cooperation is necessary to critically evaluate
Absolutely not. An individual can do so.
A2: Cooperation makes critical evaluation easier/better
Why? Because there are multiple viewpoints? That's competition.

A2: People (government) need to work together to act on truth

Superior = takes precedence. What should we do first? Get the truth before acting on it.
A2: Resolution of conflict is what leads to truth, and is cooperative
No, most of the time people never agree, but those watching the argument, and not taking sides, learn
the truth. Turn: asking people to compromise, but if one side is wrong, we shouldn't concede toward it.
A2: Critical evaluation doesn’t work because people make mistakes
People always make mistakes, but competition makes it more certain. Turn: cooperation completely
fails if people make mistakes.
A2: Lawyers have to cooperate with clients, rules of order
Of course, but they do the same in an inquisitorial justice system, maybe even more in that case. The
distinctive factor is competition.
A2: Moral standards enable us to find truth (or define truth themselves)
How?

Contention 1:
Haiti:
Linda Petty, “FBI warning of Haiti earthquake scams”, CNN, January 13, 2010 6:21 p.m. EST,
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/01/13/haiti.charity.scams/index.html
(CNN) -- As the world looks for ways to help the victims of Haiti's earthquake, the FBI is now warning
that there are also those who are looking for opportunities set up scams surrounding the latest disaster
relief efforts.
The FBI advises that people should be very skeptical of any unsolicited appeals they receive or find on
the Internet.
One month after Hurricane Katrina, the FBI said it was suspicious of most of the 4,600 Web sites
soliciting money on behalf of those victims. Within an hour of the World Trade Center attacks, scam
sites popped up on the Web according to ScamBusters.org.
Truth more important than conformity with a group

VINCENT D. NICHOLSON “Cooperation And Coercion As Methods Of Social Change” PENDLE
HILL, 1934, http://www.pendlehill.org/php/260-php001
Since the moral life of the individual man is a matter of supreme importance, man does not truly
serve his fellows when he violates his sense of truth for the sake of conformity to the moral level
of his social group.
Truth compromises groups.

Arguing to death, The Economist, December 19th, 2009,
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108704
Psychologists suggest that people make constant trade-offs in social settings between , on one
hand, insisting on their notion of truth and , on the other, the cohesion of the group. Sometimes
truth and virtue require dissent and rebellion. Other times the survival or security of the group
takes precedence and requires solidarity. If Socrates the free thinker belonged to a team, a club,
a firm or a country today, he would never compromise his values, but the might well compromise
his group.
7{17} 1AR Responses: Contention 1:

Contention 2A
Truth is best discovered with strong conflict

DAVID STAEHLI (Degrees in art and law from the University of Sydney, practicing lawyer for 27
years), "TRUTH AND LIES IN INQUISITIONS AND THE ADVERSARY SYSTEM", 11 September
2003, http://www.corruptionprevention.net/resources/Forum/2003/Staehli/Staehli.PDF
The criminal trial has been characterised as a conflict and struggle for liberty from
imprisonment. To put the adversary system another way, it might be said that truth is best
discovered by powerful statements on both sides of the question.
Judicial system and first amendment based upon competition.

Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro (Assistant Professors of Economics, University of Chicago
Graduate School of Business, Chicago, Illinois, and Faculty Research Fellows, National Bureau of
Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts), "Competition and Truth in the Market for News",
Journal of Economic Perspectives, Volume 22, Number 2—Spring 2008,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1269545
When such bias is important, many have argued in the spirit of the John Stuart Mill quotation
above that more truth will be obtained if there are vested interests on all sides of the issue
(Dewatripont and Tirole, 1999). An obvious analogy is with the advocacy structure of the U.S.
judicial system, where opposing lawyers each present a single side of a case and neither is
expected to be “unbiased.” This argument has been a central justification for media policy in the
United States. According to the Supreme Court, “[The First] Amendment rests on the
assumption that the . . . dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is
essential to the welfare of the public” (Associated Press v. United States, 326 U.S. [1945],
emphasis added).
Adversarial justice based on the truth coming from competition.

DAVID STAEHLI (Degrees in art and law from the University of Sydney, practicing lawyer for 27
years), "TRUTH AND LIES IN INQUISITIONS AND THE ADVERSARY SYSTEM", 11 September
2003, http://www.corruptionprevention.net/resources/Forum/2003/Staehli/Staehli.PDF
The adversarial system has proceeded on the assumption that the fairest and most effective
method of determining the truth of a matter is to allow the parties to put their respective cases in
their own way. This assumption depends upon the parties being able to identify their own
interests and fight their own battles.
8{17} 1AR Responses: Contention 2A

Contention 2B
Competition in media good:

1. Competing firms have to report the truth for the sake of their reputation
2. Competing firms presenting different viewpoints allows the consumer to find the truth.
Cooperation in the media bad:
1. When cooperating with government to only give the official story
2. When cooperating with consumers to only give that which matches preconceived notions
3. When with other firms, leading to only one viewpoint being reported.
Competition limits bias and distortions in the media.

We then explore three mechanisms by which increasing competition, or more precisely
increasing the number of independently-owned firms, can limit bias or distortions that originate
on the supply side of the media market. First, when governments attempt to manipulate news,
competition can increase the likelihood that the media remain independent. Second, when news
providers have an interest in manipulating consumers’ beliefs, diversity in such incentives can
reduce the risk of information being suppressed or distorted. Finally, competition may drive
firms to invest in providing timely and accurate coverage. Overall, we argue that there are robust
reasons to expect competition to be effective in disciplining supply-side bias.
9{17} 1AR Responses: Contention 2B

Credibility preeminently important in the media.

Numerous examples show that news firms pay a high price when they are shown clearly to have
distorted information. For example, the exposure of fraudulent reporting by the reporter Jayson
Blair at the New York Times caused a major scandal that led top editors Howell Raines and
Gerald M. Boyd to resign. According to one prominent executive: “They, of course, had to
resign . . . Any company has to sell the credibility of its product, but a media company has
nothing else to sell” (Kirkpatrick and Fabrikant, 2003). Similarly, when a CBS News report on
George W. Bush’s National Guard service was shown to be based on fraudulent documents, the
segment producer, Senior Vice President of CBS News, and Executive Producer were all fired
or asked to resign. Anchor Dan Rather resigned several months after the broadcast. CBS
President Andrew Heyward (2004) issued an apology stating: “[N]othing is more important to
[CBS] than our credibility.”
Competition need not be direct to reveal truth.

Firms need not be product-market competitors in order to be information-market competitors.
When conservative blogs revealed that CBS had based a story on a forged memo, other media
outlets that compete with CBS had a strong incentive to reveal this fact. Coincidentally or not,
ABC was among the first major media outlets to mention the allegations of forgery (Wikipedia,
“Killian Documents”). Many CBS viewers thus learned the substance of the blogs’ reports, even
though they were not blog readers themselves and blogs do not significantly compete with CBS
in the product market. Moreover, once enough of one firm’s consumers know about information
reported by a second, the first firm may find it too costly to suppress the information any longer.
CBS itself eventually broadcast a prime-time apology repudiating its National Guard report.
Even a consumer who only watched CBS would have learned the facts initially reported by the
blogs. We suggested above that similar incentives may explain why Republican papers
eventually reported the truth about Cre´dit Mobilier.

Abu Ghraib details made known from competition in the media, hidden by cooperation w/
government
Matthew Gentzkow, Jesse M. Shapiro (Assistant Professors of Economics, University of Chicago
Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts) "MEDIA BIAS AND REPUTATION", Working Paper
11664, NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, September 2005,
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11664
[29 footnote]Another example of the role of competition is the coverage of the allegations of
torture in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The CBS program 60 Minutes was the first to obtain
photos from the prison, but it delayed broadcasting them for two weeks. The incentive to
suppress the photos in this case was not consumer beliefs but direct pressure from the
government–Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers had personally asked Dan
Rather not to broadcast the photos. But what led them to finally be aired was competition: once
CBS learned that Seymour Hersh was working on the same story for the New Yorker, they
decided to put the report on the air (Folkenflik, 2004).
A2: Competition leads to shallow media:

Turn: news reported in easier-to-understand ways through competition.
Moreover, a policy that did cause consumers to watch more informative news would still be of
limited value if the additional information is not understood or is quickly forgotten. For any
given set of facts, a competitive media will have strong incentives to package them in a way that
is clear, entertaining, and memorable, much as a well-incentivized teacher will make dry or
difficult material vivid to students. State-sponsored media that delivered dry technical reports on
economic policy might not improve citizens’ knowledge or decision making, even if it increased
the amount of information to which they were exposed.

Extensions:
Accurate reporting
Truth revealed by competing firms for the sake of reputation.
Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts), "MEDIA BIAS AND REPUTATION", Working Paper
But reputational incentives such as those that drive our earlier results can also lead competing
firms to uncover the true state and to report it truthfully.
Competition in the news market can lead to lower bias.

The analysis of feedback foreshadows our third result: Competition in the news market can lead
to lower bias. A firm competing with another news outlet runs the risk that, if it distorts its
signal, the competitor’s report will expose the inaccuracy and thus reduce consumers’
assessments of the distorting firm’s quality. We also show that if all firms in a market are jointly
owned, bias can remain unchanged even as the number of firms gets large.
12{17} 1AR Responses: Extensions:

Feedback firms challenge scoops accuracy.

In the analysis above, we have shown that with independent ownership, truthful feedback
reporting can be supported by firms’ desires to maintain their own reputations for quality. It is
possible, however, that feedback firms might also have an incentive to harm the reputation of
the scoop firm, say because the two firms’ products are viewed as substitutes in the continuation
game. Intuitively, such rivalrous incentives can have two competing effects on the quality of ex-
post feedback. On the one hand, consider a case such as we have modelled above where
feedback firms can misreport. If the feedback firms were solely concerned with damaging the
reputation of the scoop firm, this would give them a motivation to lie and make it more diffcult
to sustain an equilibrium where their reports are fully revealing. On the other hand, suppose
feedback reports are verifiable but costly to issue. Then a feedback firm interested in damaging
the scoop firm’s reputation wouldn’t bother to pay the cost to confirm a correct scoop report, but
might be willing to undertake effort to expose an incorrect one. Therefore the stronger is the
incentive to harm the scoop firm’s reputation, the less likely an incorrect report is to go
unchallenged. These kinds of competitive incentives might exacerbate bias in a world of
unverifiable feedback, but could help discipline it in a world where feedback is verifiable but
costly to report.

Examples of competition improving media reporting

Because competition increases the likelihood that erroneous reports will be exposed ex-post, our
model predicts that added competition will tend to reduce bias. The reaction to Dan Rather’s
report on President Bush’s service in the National Guard, discussed in more detail in section 2.1,
provides one example of the role that competing media outlets can play in exposing flaws in
journalism. Anecdotes about the impact of Al Jazeera’s relatively independent reporting on
media in the Arabic-speaking world provide another. As Otis (2003) reports, “Many experts
contend that Egyptian newspapers have improved dramatically in recent years. During the Six-
Day War against Israel in 1967, the heavily censored press largely ignored battlefield defeats.
Today, Al-Jazeera and other television stations beam raw images of military conflicts into
people’s homes, preventing newspapers from straying too far from the truth.” To take a third
example, when an American civilian was beheaded by militants in Iraq, reporting of the story
was more common in countries with competitive media environments. In Syria, where all local
press and television are stateowned (Djankov, McLiesh, Nenova and Shleifer, 2003),
newspapers completely ignored this event. By contrast, in Lebanon, which has a relatively
competitive press, most newspapers did report on the beheading (Associated Press, 2004). This
fact seems to support the view that suppression and distortion of information are less attractive
when competition makes the truth likely to come out. 29
Diversity
Competition essential to making informed judgements
The New York Times, EDITORIAL, "Notes About Competition", August 2, 2007
Good journalism, which is an essential part of American democracy, thrives on competition.
More than anything, competition makes our work better — more ambitious, more in-depth,
more honest. When Americans are served by many different, responsible, competing news
outlets, they can make more informed judgments.
Bias's in competition cancel out.

Sendhil Mullainathan (Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ), Andrei
Shleifer (Institute for Economic Research, Harvard University), "Media Bias", Working Paper No. 02-
33, Social Science Research Network, http://ssrn.com/abstract_id=335800
If there are enough left-wing and enough right-wing papers, the truth about Clinton emerges.
Each side may exaggerate the story in its preferred direction, but these exaggerations cancel out.

Conflicting viewpoints enable consumers to distinguish the truth.

The liberal case for freedom of the press is [that:] usually traced to a 1644 speech by John
Milton in opposition to English licensing laws. Much subsequent writing in support of free
expression has interpreted competition in the “marketplace of ideas” as an extension of the same
analogy: conflicting points of view from various news outlets will meet in a kind of
metaphorical debate. When the evidence from each is placed side by side, consumers will be
able to distinguish the point of view that is true.
Differing sources means the truth will always be made known.

Milgrom and Roberts (1986) show in the context of a “persuasion game” that, so long as there is
at least one information provider in every state of nature that would prefer for consumers to
have accurate beliefs, the truth will always be revealed to a consumer with access to reports
from all providers. If Democratic providers always have an incentive to report Republican
scandals and Republican providers always have an incentive to report Democratic scandals, all
scandals will be exposed. Mullainathan and Shleifer (2005) make a similar point in an explicit
model of news markets, showing that a consumer who combines information from different
sources can form accurate beliefs even if the underlying sources are biased.

Elimination of bias
Competition eliminates spin, bias, and grows informative news outlets (empirics)
Several existing studies of bias in reporting also show effects of competition consistent with our
model’s predictions. Dyck and Zingales (2003) argue that newspapers put less “spin” on their
reports of company earnings when many alternative sources of information are available. Lim
(2001) presents evidence from analysts’ earnings forecasts suggesting that bias is lower the more
analysts are providing reports on a given company. 31 Gentzkow, Glaeser and Goldin (2004)
document that the emergence of independent (i.e. non-party-affiliated) newspapers in the United
States was faster in larger cities, suggesting a role for competition in encouraging the growth of
more informative news outlets.
Increasing competition will tend to decrease reporting bias.

We discuss the kinds of incentives that would lead competing firms to provide accurate
feedback in equilibrium and show that increasing competition will tend to decrease reporting
bias.
Competition eliminates bias, reveals truth

Sendhil Mullainathan (Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ), Andrei
Shleifer (Institute for Economic Research, Harvard University), "Media Bias", Working Paper No. 02-
33, Social Science Research Network, http://ssrn.com/abstract_id=335800
The more interesting issues arise when we consider competition among media outlets. Such
competition is an important argument for free press: despite the ideological biases of individual
news suppliers, the truth comes out through competition. We show that, with Bayesian readers,
this is indeed the case: competition undoes the biases from ideology.

Competition increases the costs of being biased.

If a firm knows that some consumers will learn the truth from its competitors, the costs of
pursuing an ideological agenda by suppressing or distorting information are increased, because
it becomes more likely that such actions will be exposed. Firms that compete head-to-head in
markets are especially likely to try to expose such information, since they benefit directly from
undermining their competitor’s reputation. Of course, this mechanism will only operate if firms
value a reputation for reporting the truth. We discuss this condition in more detail below.
Competition disciplines bias through reputation.

To the extent that confirmatory preferences are driven by a desire for accuracy, competition will
be effective in disciplining bias. A monopoly firm will prefer to distort information or suppress
important facts to convince consumers that it is high quality. In the presence of competitors,
however, firms run the risk that such inaccuracies will be exposed and that consumers’
assessments of their quality will fall as a result. In Gentzkow and Shapiro (2006a), we
demonstrate this effect in a model with rational consumers. Furthermore, the same forces will
operate whether or not it is rational to infer that a like-minded source is high quality.

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Joshua Mirth PARADE, Wisconsin

Aff for Regionals:

1{17} Aff for Regionals: Aff for Regionals:

2{17} Aff for Regionals: Affirmative Constructive

3{17} Aff for Regionals: Affirmative Constructive

4{17} 1AR Responses: 1AR Responses:

5{17} 1AR Responses: 1AR Responses:

A2: People (government) need to work together to act on truth

6{17} 1AR Responses: 1AR Responses:

Truth more important than conformity with a group

Truth compromises groups.

7{17} 1AR Responses: Contention 1:

Truth is best discovered with strong conflict

Judicial system and first amendment based upon competition.

Adversarial justice based on the truth coming from competition.

8{17} 1AR Responses: Contention 2A

Competition in media good:

Competition limits bias and distortions in the media.

9{17} 1AR Responses: Contention 2B

Credibility preeminently important in the media.

Competition need not be direct to reveal truth.

10{17} 1AR Responses: Contention 2B

A2: Competition leads to shallow media:

11{17} 1AR Responses: Contention 2B

Competition in the news market can lead to lower bias.

12{17} 1AR Responses: Extensions:

Feedback firms challenge scoops accuracy.

13{17} 1AR Responses: Extensions:

Examples of competition improving media reporting

Bias's in competition cancel out.

14{17} 1AR Responses: Extensions:

Conflicting viewpoints enable consumers to distinguish the truth.

Differing sources means the truth will always be made known.

15{17} 1AR Responses: Extensions:

Increasing competition will tend to decrease reporting bias.

Competition eliminates bias, reveals truth

16{17} 1AR Responses: Extensions:

Competition increases the costs of being biased.

Competition disciplines bias through reputation.

17{17} 1AR Responses: Extensions:

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