NNN

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YellowSapphire: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 117; Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:57 pm; Location: India; Thanked: 1 times

by YellowSapphire » Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:35 am

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.

Yellow Sapphire

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:35 am

reply2spg: Legendary Member; Posts: 1261; Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:46 am; Thanked: 27 times; GMAT Score:570

by reply2spg » Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:54 am

Is it A?

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.

Sudhanshu
(have lot of things to learn from all of you)

beatthegmatinsept: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 422; Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:47 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 22 times; GMAT Score:680

by beatthegmatinsept » Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:03 pm

IMO A.. Whats the OA?

debmalya_dutta: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 385; Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:16 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 29 times; GMAT Score:710

by debmalya_dutta » Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:13 pm

completed in 1:52

My pick is A

A: The Network has established an additional liberal news program whenever an additional conservative news personality has been added.
the stimulus shows that when liberal news personality is hired , then a new conservative program is introduced. But what happens when a conservative personality is hired . If it introduces a liberal program , it would mean that that the agency is not biased . If it does not introduce a liberal program , it would mean that that the agency is biased.
B: The Network airs a program focused largely on the opinions of its viewers on contemporary issues. - does not help the director to conclude that the agency is not biased. Out of scope
C: The newly added liberal news personality came from a rival network with an acknowledged liberal bias. - does not help the director to conclude that the agency is not biased and is Out of scope
D: The newly added liberal news personality has indicated that he has not felt any editorial pressure in his new environment. - It does not help in evaluating whether the agency is biased.
E: The viewer ratings of the Network have been lower this past year than in previous years.- does not help the director to conclude that the agency is not biased and is Out of scope

Mo2men: Legendary Member; Posts: 712; Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:39 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 14 times

by Mo2men » Mon May 20, 2019 8:51 pm

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."

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.

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

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Wed May 22, 2019 2:51 am

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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Mo2men: Legendary Member; Posts: 712; Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:39 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 14 times

by Mo2men » Wed May 22, 2019 2:28 pm

GMATGuruNY wrote:
Mo2men wrote:
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.
dear GMATGuru,

Regardless of the OA. If choice B were to read as follows:

B: The Network airs SIGNIFICANT amount of programs focused largely on the opinions of its viewers on contemporary issues.

Do you consider it correct? From my view, 'significant' means that the network MIGHT be balanced or biased because the VIEWERs could be skewed to certain side or Might be balanced. So Choice B is incorrect compared to OA.

What do you think??

Thanks

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu May 23, 2019 2:21 am

Mo2men wrote:Regardless of the OA. If choice B were to read as follows:

B: The Network airs SIGNIFICANT number of programs focused largely on the opinions of its viewers on contemporary issues.

Do you consider it correct? From my view, 'significant' means that the network MIGHT be balanced or biased because the VIEWERs could be skewed to certain side or Might be balanced. So Choice B is incorrect compared to OA.

What do you think??

Thanks

Consider the following case:
The networks airs over one hundred programs focused largely on the opinions of its viewers.
The NUMBER of programs tells us nothing about the NATURE of the opinions (whether they are liberal or conservative) or about the network's REACTION to these opinions (whether they are praised or condemned).
Thus, the proposed revision of B does not help us evaluate whether the network has a conservative bias.

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