Evaluate Revision: The director of programming at NNN

Question

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.

samusa · Accepted Answer

This is an evaluate type question ; We can easily narrow down to two options A and D. To resolve the confusion between the two choices , we should do the Variance Analysis Test (thanks to e-gmat.com).That is, the correct answer will strengthen the argument if the option is true and weaken the argument if the argument is not true i.e. falsified OR vice versa.So basically we check two extremes- STRENGTHEN AND WEAKEN. Possible assumption- "liberal news personality = an additional conservative news program" Conclusion-'the Network does not have a conservative bias' Analysis of option A- Extreme 1-The Network has established an additional liberal news program whenever an additional conservative news personality has been added- Validates the conclusion/argument- Strengthens the conclusion of the director. Extreme 2- The Network has NOT established an additional liberal news program whenever an additional conservative news personality has been added- Invalidates the conclusion/argument.- Weakens the conclusion of the director. Analysis of option D- Extreme 1-The newly added liberal news personality has indicated that he has not felt any editorial pressure in his new environment- So he can maintain his views. Extreme 2-The newly added liberal news personality has indicated that he has felt any editorial pressure in his new environment- May be he is forced to have conservative views OR may be he is forced to maintain his liberal views.- Neither strengthens nor weakens So option D is wrong because it fails to pass the extreme. test Hope the above helps!!! Kudos if you like the post.... :-D

GyanOne · Answer

The director is refuting the charge that NNN has a bias towards being conservative. Recently, the channel hired a liberal news personality, which should have made the channel more liberal (as it has one more person who has liberal views, as opposed to conservative). However, in response, the channel added an additional conservative news program.

To an outsider, this would seem that the channel tried to maintain its bias for being conservative by trying to neutralize the effect of one additional liberal news anchor through an additional conservative news program. This is the charge that is made against the news network.

However, the director refutes the charge by saying that the conservative news program helped to balance the effect of added liberalism in the news network through the liberal anchor - it was an attempt on the part of the news channel to help maintained a balanced perspective, not to 'make up' for the presence of more liberalism (through the new anchor) by introducing more conservatism (through the news program). In summation, the director is saying that the news network strives to provide a balanced perspective to its viewers, not to maintain a bias towards conservatism.

So in this question, the correct answer choice is (1).

1) If the news network has always established an additional liberal news program whenever a new conservative personality has joined, it shows the commitment of the network to balance out liberalism and conservatism IN THE SAME WAY as it has in the question stem. Therefore this is the right choice. 
2) Even if the network airs one program focused on the opinions of its viewers, that does not make it committed to showing the balanced perspective as a whole (there could be many more program not focused on viewer opinion). 
3) This is irrelevant to the argument
4) Even if the new personality has not felt any editorial pressure, we cannot comment on the situation in general. 
5) Viewer rating has no relation to the new network showing a balanced perspective.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The director of programming argues that the addition of a conservative news program in response to the hiring of a liberal news personality represents an institutional attempt at balancing different perspectives, rather than any conservative bias. The evidence provided by the director is outside of the context of any past actions on the part of the Network; it would be useful to have more information about actions the Network has taken in response to the hiring of conservative or liberal news personalities in the past to determine a pattern of behavior.

(A) CORRECT.  If the Network responds to the addition of a liberal news personality in the same way that it does the addition of a conservative news personality, then the argument presented by the director is valid. An identical response to the hiring of a personality from either side of the political spectrum suggests that the Network does act in a fair and balanced manner, at least in this regard.

(B) Whether the Network presents a program airing the opinions of its viewers on contemporary issues does not indicate either a balanced approach or a conservative bias. This statement is irrelevant.

(C) The nature of the former employer of the newly-hired liberal news personality is not relevant in determining whether or not there is a systematic conservative bias regarding the overall programming of the Network.

(D) Whether the new liberal news personality has indicated that he has felt any editorial pressure is not relevant; he might not want to admit to such pressure even if it did exist. Moreover, the experience of one employee does not address the overall programming of the Network.

(E) That the Network has suffered from lower ratings in the past year is not relevant to determining the bias or lack thereof of the Network, though it may explain why new personalities and programming are being added.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Option A is correct. The director claimed that the reason for establishing a conservative news program when a liberal personality is added is to balance the liberal and conservative outlook of the channel. It is important to know whether the reverse is also done,i.e. when a conservative personality is added, whether a liberal news program is established (option A).

Option D does not state anything about this balance.

Hence A is better than D.

OA has been added.

Option D does not state anything about this  balance .

Hence A is better than D.

OA has been added.

anairamitch1804 · Answer

This argument exhibits a CHANGE IN SCOPE. 
The premise is about ONE CASE: When a liberal news personality was recently added to the Network, an additional conservative news program was also established. 
The conclusion is a GENERALIZATION: Far from demonstrating any bias, these actions reflects COMMITMENT TO PRESENTING A BALANCED PERSPECTIVE in interpreting current events.

The correct answer must help us determine whether this ONE CASE of apparent non-bias truly reflects a COMMITMENT TO PRESENTING A BALANCED PERSPECTIVE.

A: The Network has established an additional liberal news program whenever an additional conservative news personality has been added. 
This answer choice shows that the ONE CASE presented in the passage was NOT AN EXCEPTION and supports the GENERALIZATION that the network has a COMMITMENT TO PRESENTING A BALANCED PERSPECTIVE: When a liberal news personality was recently added to the Network, an additional CONSERVATIVE news program was also established, and whenever an additional conservative news personality has been added, the Network has established an additional LIBERAL news program. Hence, no bias.

The correct answer is A.

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

This question is part of the  GMAT Club Critical Reasoning : Evaluate Revision Project.

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. 
Yes this one,the choice provides futher evaluation opertunity to the reader that if the opposite is aslo true,that is its stated that when liberal is added then a conservative is also added, but do they add a liberal when adding a conservative? if so then it would prove that NNN is unbiased but if it is not so then there might be more conservatives than liberals.Best option.

B. The Network airs a program focused largely on the opinions of its viewers on contemporary issues. what issues are being focused on is out of scope

C. The newly added liberal news personality came from a rival network with an acknowledged liberal bias. this does nto help to evaluate the NNN position

D. The newly added liberal news personality has indicated that he has not felt any editorial pressure in his new environment. well this is little far fetched option because the pressure is not quite discussed and also if we have a better choice then why pick a vague choice which is neither discussed nor supported

E. The viewer ratings of the Network have been lower this past year than in previous years.  well rating is out of scope

Akku1436 · Answer

The question is literally hard to understand. How does one finish it off in 2-3 min, choosing the correct answer option.

krndatta · Answer

KarishmaB  Ma'am,

Please share your insights for option D.

If the newly added liberal news personality has indicated he has felt some pressure, doesn't this weaken the claim of the Director?

Please share your two cents

I got this. 
Edited this part later. 
The new liberal news personality has said that he has not felt any pressure in his new environment. We don't know what kind of pressure is he talking about. Is the pressure good or bad? 
Hence, we cannot use this as a yardstick to evaluate the validity of the director's statement.

Am I somewhere close to the correct reasoning?

risehazy05 · Answer

IMO A is the correct answer. This is the only option that explains how the NNN presents a balanced perspective.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Evaluate Revision: The director of programming at NNN

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Evaluate Revision: The director of programming at NNN

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