Smokescreen

This fallacy occurs by offering too many details in order either to obscure the point or to cover-up counter-evidence. In the latter case it would be an example of the fallacy of suppressed evidence. If you produce a smokescreen by bringing up an irrelevant issue, then you produce a red herring fallacy. Sometimes called clouding the issue.

Example:

Senator, wait before you vote on Senate Bill 88. Do you realize that Delaware passed a bill on the same subject in 1932, but it was ruled unconstitutional for these twenty reasons. Let me list them here.... Also, before you vote on SB 88 you need to know that .... And so on.

There is no recipe to follow in distinguishing smokescreens from reasonable appeals to caution and care.

Red Herring

A red herring is a smelly fish that would distract even a bloodhound. It is also a digression that leads the reasoner off the track of considering only relevant information.

Example:

Will the new tax in Senate Bill 47 unfairly hurt business? One of the provisions of the bill is that the tax is higher for large employers (fifty or more employees) as opposed to small employers (six to forty-nine employees). To decide on the fairness of the bill, we must first determine whether employees who work for large employers have better working conditions than employees who work for small employers.

Bringing up the issue of working conditions is the red herring.