<P> A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue . It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion . A red herring might be intentionally used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies (e.g. in politics), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation . </P> <P> The origin of the expression is unknown . Conventional wisdom has long supposed it to be the use of a kipper (a strong - smelling smoked fish) to train hounds to follow a scent, or to divert them from the correct route when hunting; however, modern linguistic research suggests that the term was probably invented in 1807 by English polemicist William Cobbett, referring to one occasion on which he had supposedly used a kipper to divert hounds from chasing a hare, and was never an actual practice of hunters . The phrase was later borrowed to provide a formal name for the logical fallacy and literary device . </P> <P> As an informal fallacy, the red herring falls into a broad class of relevance fallacies . Unlike the straw man, which is premised on a distortion of the other party's position, the red herring is a seemingly plausible, though ultimately irrelevant, diversionary tactic . According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a red herring may be intentional, or unintentional; it does not necessarily mean a conscious intent to mislead . </P>

Where did the phrase red herring come from
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