Journalist : In late 1994, the present government of the Republic of

Journalist's Conclusion: The old government was more tolerant of criticism by the press than the new one is.

Support for that Conclusion: Since new government, about thirty journalists per year have been imprisoned for criticizing the government. During the year 1994, under the old government, only six journalists were imprisoned for criticizing the government.

Assumption: The reason for the increase in journalists imprisoned per year is a difference in tolerance.

Politician: But in 1994 only six journalists criticized the government, and now journalists routinely do.

What the politician says indicates that the reason for the increase is not a difference in tolerance but rather an increase in the number of journalists who criticize the government.

(D) Pointing out that the argument illegitimately draws a general conclusion on the basis of a sample of only a few cases

This choice could be tempting, because the politician does mention a difference in numbers, but the difference that the politician mentions is the difference between the number of journalists who criticized the previous government the number who criticize the current government. The politician does not dispute the validity of the numbers that the journalist uses to support the conclusion and does not claim that they are not representative of what is occurring. The politician's point is that, even though those numbers are correct and even though those numbers accurately represent what has occurred, the journalist's conclusion is not valid.

(E) Stating that the argument treats information about some members of a group as if it applied to all members of that group

Even through what the politician says about journalists' routinely criticizing the current government could be taken as indicating that the 30 journalists imprisoned per year does not include all journalists who criticize the current government, the politician does not actually make the case that the journalist's argument is flawed because not all journalists who criticize the government are imprisoned, and the politician does not otherwise indicate that the journalist treats information about some journalists as if it applied to all journalists.

(B) Introducing evidence that undermines an assumption of the journalist’s argument

(B) describes exactly how the politician challenges the argument. By indicating that criticism of the government by journalists has increased, the politician attacks the assumption that the reason for the increase in imprisonment of journalists is that the current government is less tolerant of criticism than the previous government was. The politician attacks that assumption by presenting an alternative cause, increase in criticism, for the observed effect, increase in number of journalist imprisoned.