patto wrote:
In its coverage of a controversy regarding a proposal to build a new freeway, a television news program showed interviews with several people who would be affected by the proposed freeway. Of the interviews shown, those conducted with people against the new freeway outnumbered those conducted with people for it two to one. The television program is therefore biased against the proposed freeway.
Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) Most of the people who watched the program were aware of the freeway controversy beforehand.
(B) Most viewers of television news programs do not expect those programs to be completely free of bias.
(C) In the interviews, the people against the new freeway expressed their opinions with more emotion than the people for the freeway did.
(D) Before the program aired, over twice as many people were against building the freeway than were in favor of it.
(E) The business interests of the television station that produced the program would be harmed by the construction of a new freeway.
The show showed 2 people against freeway while only 1 for it.
Hence, the show is biased.
We need to weaken that the show is biased. We need to prove that the show is fair. When will the show be fair? When there are actually 2 people against the freeway for every 1 person for it. Then it would have shown the fair picture. This is what option (D) says and is hence correct.
(A) Most of the people who watched the program were aware of the freeway controversy beforehand.
Irrelevant. The point is that the "show is biased". Whether people are aware of the issue or not, doesn't matter.
(B) Most viewers of television news programs do not expect those programs to be completely free of bias.
Again, we need to weaken that the show is biased. How viewers view the program is irrelevant.
(C) In the interviews, the people against the new freeway expressed their opinions with more emotion than the people for the freeway did.
The point is not "how well they expressed". It is how many expressed what opinion.
(E) The business interests of the television station that produced the program would be harmed by the construction of a new freeway.
Again, we don't care "why the station might be biased". We need to weaken that it is biased.
Answer (D)
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Updated on: 10 Feb 2019, 00:21
25%
(medium)
77%
(01:48)
correct 
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