Mo2men wrote:YellowSapphire wrote:The director of programming at NNN, the National News Network, proclaimed that, despite charges to the contrary, the Network does not have a conservative bias. The director acknowledged that, when a liberal news personality was recently added to the Network, an additional conservative news program was also established. However, the director argued that far from demonstrating any bias, these actions reflect a commitment to presenting a balanced perspective in interpreting current events.
Which of the following pieces of information would be most useful in evaluating the validity of the programming director's argument?
A: The Network has established an additional liberal news program whenever an additional conservative news personality has been added.
B: The Network airs a program focused largely on the opinions of its viewers on contemporary issues.
C: The newly added liberal news personality came from a rival network with an acknowledged liberal bias.
D: The newly added liberal news personality has indicated that he has not felt any editorial pressure in his new environment.
E: The viewer ratings of the Network have been lower this past year than in previous years.
Dear GMATGuru,
1- Where is the main conclusion of the argument here? is it :
"the Network does not have a conservative bias."
or
"these actions reflect a commitment to presenting a balanced perspective in interpreting current events."
The two statements together serve to form the conclusion of the programming director.
A premise is a FACT not in dispute.
A conclusion is an OPINION that CAN be disputed.
Only one FACT is presented in the passage:
When a liberal news personality was recently added to the Network, an additional conservative news program was also established.
Given this fact, the programming director "argues" and thus CONCLUDES that
these actions reflect a commitment to presenting a balanced perspective and that
the Network does not have a conservative bias.
2- Why choice B wrong? if the channel listen to its viewer, it implies that it provides balanced perspective. Or can I interpret it that viewers might be skewed to conversation side or liberal side and hence the channel might be biased to one side.
ONE program -- out of perhaps HUNDREDS of programs -- is not sufficient to strengthen or weaken the conclusion that the network lacks a conservative bias.
3- In this evaluate question, do I need to test any extreme cases? or the choice above are the ready cases to test if strengthen or weaken the conclusion?
thanks in advance
Most of the options already include extreme language:
A: WHENEVER
B: focused LARGELY
D: ANY pressure
Thus, there is no need to make the answer choices extreme.
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