Q14 - The press reports on political campaign

[nandy_millette]

I am drilling Must be True questions (untimed) at the moment and came across this question. I tried looking for linkages in the text and was able to decipher the following:

Premise: The press is ignoring substantive policy issues and reporting only on the process --> Press reports deprive voters of the information they need to make informed decisions

Conclusion: Press should stay out of limelight and report on the substantive issues that the candidates have taken.


RPC- report only on the campaign process
ISPI- ignoring substantive policy issues
DI- voters deprived of information

I was not sure if their were any linkages in the premise so I linked it like so:

RPC-->ISPI-->DI

Reporting only on the campaign process GUARANTEES that the press would be ignoring substantive policy issues which in turn GUARANTEES that the voters would be deprived of information.

Possible inference based on this statement are:

RPC-->DI
~DI-->~RPC
ISPI-->DI
~DI-->~ISPI

Answer choices:

A) No information was given in the stimulus about the candidates preferences therefore this statement is not a valid inference

B) Again, no information was given in the stimulus about what the press does or does not enjoy so this statement is not a valid inference

C) Like A and B, no information is given about what the candidates believe on this topic so this is not a valid statement (however, we do know that author in the stimulus believes that political campaigns are like chess games)

D) No where in the statement is there any information or mention of what type of reporting is easier, so this statement is not supported by the information in the stimulus.

E) Correct Answer: Reporting on campaign advisors is not providing all of the information the voters need in order to make informed decisions. This is exactly the inference we made above:

RPC-->DI

IF (RPC) report only on the campaign process THEN (DI) voters deprived of information

Is my reasoning for this question correct? Since the answer choices were all very easy to eliminate would you suggest that I just dive into the answer choices for a question like this ( by this I mean a question with a convoluted stimulus) ?

[maryadkins]

Your reasoning looks good for the most part, but I think you created more work for yourself than necessary on this. I'd boil this question down more simply to non-conditional language since that's all it takes to move through it. (Also, I'm not sure I'd agree with you that "reporting only on the campaign process GUARANTEES that the press would be ignoring substantive policy issues""”we know if both of these are true then voters are deprived of information, but (a) that's CAUSAL language ("because"), and (b) we have no "guarantee" language between reporting on the campaign process and ignoring substantive policy.) Whenever you see causation language, don't try to turn it onto conditional logic, (1) because you probably don't need CL, and (2) because you may slightly make it erroneous.

But bingo on the core, and on your elimination of answers"”note that you didn't use conditional logic at all, you just made an inference from what you were told:

Premise: The press is ignoring substantive policy issues and reporting only on the process --> Press reports deprive voters of the information they need to make informed decisions

Conclusion: Press should stay out of limelight and report on the substantive issues that the candidates have taken.

A) No information was given in the stimulus about the candidates preferences therefore this statement is not a valid inference

B) Again, no information was given in the stimulus about what the press does or does not enjoy so this statement is not a valid inference

C) Like A and B, no information is given about what the candidates believe on this topic so this is not a valid statement (however, we do know that author in the stimulus believes that political campaigns are like chess games)

D) No where in the statement is there any information or mention of what type of reporting is easier, so this statement is not supported by the information in the stimulus.

E) Correct Answer: Reporting on campaign advisors is not providing all of the information the voters need in order to make informed decisions. This is exactly the inference we made above:

RPC-->DI

IF (RPC) report only on the campaign process THEN (DI) voters deprived of information

[nandy_millette]

Thanks Mary, I agree with you 100%.

I was really lost with this question, your response helped.