A wonderful article found at https://www.acsh.org/news/2016/09/08/argumentum-ad-aurum-follow-money-fallacy-10133
This fallacious argument is thrown over and over again at scientists and journalists, in particular. Don't like a scientist's research? Follow the money! Don't like a journalist's opinion? Follow the money! For many, the only conceivable reason that a person dares to disagree is because he or she is being paid off by [Insert BIG ______ here]. In this bizarre worldview, there are only two types of people: truth-tellers and paid shills. ...
Why does the "follow the money" argument fail so miserably? There are three major reasons.
First, everybody has to get their money from somebody. ...
Second, as counterintuitive as this is going to sound, money usually doesn't change people's opinions. ...
Third, research suggests that people who are paid to support a particular cause are less persuasive. So, hiring "paid shills" would be a bad business decision.
