Quote:
Journalists agree universally that lying is absolutely taboo. Yet, while many reporters claim that spoken words ought to be quoted verbatim, many others believe that tightening a quote from a person who is interviewed is legitimate on grounds that the speaker’s remarks would have been more concise if the speaker had written them instead. Also, many reporters believe that, to expose wrongdoing, failing to identify oneself as a reporter is permissible, while
others condemn such behavior as a type of lying.
I am taking this as an inference question. And any information that is directly told is not inference, inference has to be the idea that you derive from the evidence and statements. Here, we have statements and claims, instead of data or evidence, that we will take into account.
Quote:
Journalists agree universally that lying is absolutely taboo.
Statement 1 (Probably the only fact)
Quote:
many reporters claim that spoken words ought to be quoted verbatim
Claim 1
Quote:
many others believe that tightening a quote from a person who is interviewed is legitimate on grounds that the speaker’s remarks would have been more concise if the speaker had written them instead
Claim 2 (Opposing claim 1)
Quote:
many reporters believe that, to expose wrongdoing failing to identify oneself as a reporter is permissible
Claim 3
Quote:
while others condemn such behavior as a type of lying
Claim 4 (Opposing claim 3)
As we analyze, we recognize that while journalists agree that lying is taboo, what constitutes as a lie is debatable and the grounds for debate have been explained in the rest of the lines.
Quote:
(A) Reporters make little effort to behave ethically.
NO Out of scope.
Quote:
(B) There is no correct answer to the question of whether lying in a given situation is right or wrong.
NO. Tempting but this option is too general and does not really say anything in particular about journalism, journalists or lying in journalism.
Quote:
(C) Omission of the truth is the same thing as lying.
NO. Just a claim in the passage which is followed by another claim justifying omission.
Quote:
(D) Since lying is permissible in some situations, reporters are mistaken to think that it is absolutely taboo.
NO. Again, the option is based on claims that have been opposed in the passage itself.
Quote:
(E) Reporters disagree on what sort of behavior qualifies as lying.
Bingo. This looks more like an inference - not directly spelled out in the passage, seems like a fair derivation of the statements and claims given in the passage.
It is almost always better to find 4 wrong answers and then choose the right answer than finding the correct answer only.
Hope this helps.