The most serious flaw in television’s coverage of election campaigns

Its not correct to say D is not supported by passage. "at the expense of substantive coverage of the issues and the candidates’ positions on them"

Still, C looks better just because strong tone of passage towards opinion poll..

The problem is TV coverage is concentrating on who is winning. How do they do it? by opinion polls.

What would be a good first measure? Limit the number of opinion polls

C is my pick

I still think that D is a good answer here. Any takers?

Fact of the matter is, there may be a lot of literature out there already, but who is to say anyone is reading it or that it changes their mentality. Plus this is television coverage, not library coverage. Thats my reasoning for picking C.

I think the main conclusion is the argument is this:

Which of the following best completes the passage below?
the most serious flaw in television’s coverage of election campaigns is its tendency to focus on the horse-race side of politics—that is, to concentrate on the question “Who’s winning?” at the expense of substantive coverage of the issues and the candidates’ positions on them. The endless interviews with campaign managers, discussions of campaign strategies, and, especially, the obsession with opinion polls have surrounded elections with the atmosphere of a football game or a prizefight. To reform this situation, a first step might well be______

Notice the bold part where I highlighted.

(D) the publication and distribution of voter-education literature to inform the public about each candidate’s position on the major issues

- directly attacks the statement, and that's why that's the best way to reform the situation.

I believe the opinion polls only address one aspect of the problem (only part of the conclusion) while informing the public of the candidate's position does a better job in addressing the ENTIRE problem: "lack of coverage on issues and candidate's position".

Experts, could you please comment on why C & why not D here.

C. a reduction in the television coverage of opinion polls during election campaigns
D. the publication and distribution of voter-education literature to inform the public about each candidate's position on the major issues

My logic:
Reducing media coverage of "who wins" or increasing coverage of "candidates' position on various/major issues" - could both work as an answer to the question.

Since, the argument talks about the media coverage whereas option D isn't about media coverage. So, option C makes more sense.

My 2 cents.
Focus of the argument is not at what we can do to inform the public about each candidate’s position on the major issues ?
Overall argument is criticizing behavior of television broadcasters, and author wants to see some change in their behavior.

Further author says that endless interviews with campaign managers, discussions of campaign strategies, and, especially, the obsession with opinion polls have surrounded elections with the atmosphere of a football game or a prizefight.

If I ask you to take first step to screw television broadcasters so they change their behavior then what you will suggest ?

Personally I feel we should prohibit campaign manager from giving bytes, or we should restrict opinion polls or any such thing which author mentioned in his/her complaint.

I hope you got the point.

To reform this situation, a first step might well be______
(A) a shortening of the length of election campaigns to a period of six weeks
(B) a stringent limit on campaign spending
(C) a reduction in the television coverage of opinion polls during election campaigns
(D) the publication and distribution of voter-education literature to inform the public about each candidate’s position on the major issues
(E) a limit on the length and number of political advertisements broadcast on television

according to the argument the most serious flaw in television’s coverage of election campaigns is its tendency to focus on the question “Who’s winning?” by:
-endless interviews with campaign managers,
-discussions of campaign strategies,
-and, especially, the obsession with opinion polls
they do this at the expense of substantive coverage of the issues and the candidates’ positions on them.

so to reform this situation, the first step might well be eliminating these opinion polls and instead of these opinion polls coverage, in second step should be covering the issues and the candidates’ positions on them

if producers do not eliminate the coverage of opinion polls they won't have enough space to cover the issues and the candidates’ positions on them; so, C should be the answer

Hello Expert

For the stated question stem, a lot of discussions has been done on the thread. Hence, I will not ask for an explanation to the answer. However, I still am not convinced as to why C is a better option.

Diving a little deep, looking at the stats of answers given by test takers, C:D is 55:38%, which is just about the probability of choosing anyone right. Looks like everyone is confused between the two options and it's just a chance that someone is selecting one and not the other.

If you can help put up a proper explanation explaining the 2 options, it would be helpful to all the students preparing.

Thanks.

Heyamoljain, I'm no expert but see if this helps you.

Notice how the argument talks about the flaw of television coverage. Option D talks about publishing and distributing literature (perhaps books?) on issues and all the good stuff that we want. But does that really start to fix the flaw in the "television coverage"? Overall, yes it'd make the elections better, I am with you on that one. But you need to focus more on improving the elections coverage and choice C directly addresses this issue.

Also, the difficult verbal questions would generally have 2 close choices (which would also be evidenced by the timer stats).

i agree with Brian123 explanation.
My another 1 cent to the knowledge sharing.

To reform this situation, a first step might well be ( direct solution of a problem)
Problem: too much time on opinion pools
solution: give less time to these pools- C option
( You can't challenge this solution )

D. handover books etc. Even you choose D option, still there would be open questions whether your goal of reducing time can be achieved? What if this solution is not effective? What if it doesn't work there. This could be future steps for the awareness of citizens . Your goal is to reduce time for the pools. D option doesn't seem to be related at all.


C is clear winner.

Hi Amol

The passage and the conclusion are about the poor role that television plays in election coverage, and not about the role that the voter plays. Please remember, our job is to select the correct conclusion as informed by the passage, and not merely a correct conclusion.

Coming back to this, informing the public about issues that television fails to address may fill a gap, but the passage wants to "reform this situation", which refers to the "flaw in television’s coverage". We do not know that voters do not obtain the information in the "literature" information from other sources, merely that they do not get it from television. Therefore, we cannot be certain that option (D) rectifies any situation, only that it may. Thus, option (C) is clearly the better option.

Hope this helps.

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