Devilish Sentence Equivalence

[fbmagnumopus]

Hey Tommy,

I have a question regarding this sentence equivalence question on my exam (Practice test 4, verbal 1, question 13 Right-leaning board members Devilish 1:56 19:26 SE Verbal: 2 correct )

Despite pressure from right-leaning board members to__________ leftist propaganda evident in the current editorial biases, the city’s newspaper has maintained some sense of neutrality because a majority of the board understood the conservative caucus to have sham intent in trying to galvanize public opinion against the paper.
vacillate
prevent
sanction
inoculate against
wallow in
waver

I've read the explanation umpteen times but it just doesn't make sense to me. I'm confused how 'right wing' board members would logically sanction/allow for left wing propaganda when they are right wing! By right wing I am thinking of orthodox conservative people who would prevent left wing propaganda - Am I going wrong somewhere?

Also how does the conservative caucus' sanctioning leftwing propaganda make sense with galvanizing public opinion?

As you can see I do not apprehend the choices sanction and wallow in at all in terms of how they fit with the text. My logic tells me right wing 'prevent' or 'inoculate againts ' fit better. What are your thoughts?

[tommywallach]

Hey FB,

It's more complicated than you're giving it credit for. The right wing folks are trying to play a trick! They want to encourage the paper to be REALLY leftish in the hopes that it will make readers dislike the paper ("trying to galvanize public opinion against the paper"). This is described as "sham intent"; they're pretending that they think the paper should be more left, but their real intention is to make readers angry. Devilish, right?

:)

-t

[fbmagnumopus]

Yeah. I really think few people would crack this tough nut. It's difficult to wrap one's head around. Thanks for the explanation : )

[tommywallach]

I know. It's a rough one. : )

-t