Key points

Many have misjudged JD Vance in the story about raising a river level for his birthday kayaking trip.

Overlooking that the Secret Service made the decision falls under the “fundamental attribution error.”

Consumers of news need to look past the headlines before making firm judgments.

Vice President Vance had a birthday recently for which he and his family took a kayaking trip down a river. His birthday made news because the entire river level was artificially raised just for his personal outing.

This news story sounds bad. It sounds like an entitled abuse of power. But it turns out to be complicated, in terms of who asked for the water level to be raised, the reason behind the request, and how to accurately phrase a headline, post, or one-liner about it.

Among high-profile

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