Magazine Publisher: Our magazine does not have a liberal bias. It is t

Question

Magazine Publisher: Our magazine does not have a liberal bias. It is true that when a book review we had commissioned last year turned out to express distinctly conservative views, we did not publish it until we had also obtained a second review that took a strongly liberal position. Clearly, however, our actions demonstrate not a bias in favor of liberal views but rather a commitment to a balanced presentation of diverse opinions.

Determining which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the cogency of the magazine publisher’s response?

(A) Whether any other magazines in which the book was reviewed carried more than one review of the book

(B) Whether the magazine publishes unsolicited book reviews as well as those that it has commissioned

(C) Whether in the event that a first review commissioned by the magazine takes a clearly liberal position the magazine would make any efforts to obtain further reviews

(D) Whether the book that was the subject of the two reviews was itself written from a clearly conservative or a clearly liberal point of view

(E) Whether most of the readers of the magazine regularly read the book reviews that the magazine publishes

Vercules · Accepted Answer

Hi fozzy,

Conclusion : Our magazine does not have a liberal bias and presents balanced opinions.

Premises : The magazine receives conservative opinion, it waits until it gets a liberal opinion.

The correct answer choice will help us determine whether the magazine has a liberal bias or presents a balanced opinion.

A. Whether any other magazines in which the book was reviewed carried more than one review of the book

The argument is not concerned about other magazines, making this an irrelevant answer choice.

B. Whether the magazine publishes unsolicited book reviews as well as those that it has commissioned
 
This option as well does not tell anything about the bias towards the liberal or towards the conservative opinions.

C. Whether in the event that a first review commissioned by the magazine takes a clearly liberal position the magazine would make any efforts to obtain further reviews

This answer choice gives us a clear evaluation parameter to test whether the magazine has a liberal bias or not. If the answer to the question asked by (C) is yes then the magazine will make efforts to obtain views other than the liberal ones, so the magazine presents balanced opinions, making this fact inline with the fact in the premises. If the answer is no, then the magazine would not make efforts to get other opinions; therefore, it has a bias towards the liberal opinions.

D. Whether the book that was the subject of the two reviews was itself written from a clearly conservative or a clearly liberal point of view

The argument is concerned about point of view of magazine and not the book itself, making this choice an irrelevant one.

E. Whether most of the readers of the magazine regularly read the book reviews that the magazine publishes

The readership of the magazine is in no way connected to the bias that the magazine may have. Even if the magazine readers do not read it regularly, the magazine my have any of the biases. This choice will be of no use for us in evaluating the cogency of the editor's response.

Hope that helps,

Vercules

bigtreezl · Answer

the argument suggests that the publisher is fair and unbiased. C questions whether the publisher would have made the same effort to balance a liberal point of view

nishtil · Answer

The important point to understand that magazine publisher argues that their magazine is unbiased and balanced. He provides evidence pointing to the fact that magazine provided conservative review to balance the liberal review provided by other magazine.

Here, what needs to be evaluated is if magazine provides its review first then will it reconsidered any other review to balance the tide.

option C clearly specify that question, hence C

ashutoshsh · Answer

i did not understand this argument and answered this question wrong. Can anyone please explain me the meaning of liberal bias? I took it as if magazine publisher is saying that they do NOT have a fair bias.

abhimahna · Answer

The argument is saying there are tow types of views : Conservative and Liberal.

It is saying it is not biased to the liberal side. It is neutral for both.

Aviral1995 · Answer

VeritasKarishma  could you please explain difference b/w option C and option D. I am still not able to distinguish b/w the two options

rishab0507 · Answer

May be i can help. 
Lets evaluate option C : 
Premise says book first got conservative views. As owner want to be nuetral and show they are unbiased they went for 2nd review from Liberals. This show that their working is genuine and unbiased for any particular segment of views.
Now question asks to evaluate cogency of publisher : means, how can we Support the publisher is correct or Make the fact that he is unbiased is true and evaluate it

Option C says the same but in reverse direction: Whether first they get liberal view will they go for Conservative. If No then they are biased towards liberals, If yes, then yes they are Unbiased. So it will be important to evaluate this fact from both sides.

Option D : We don't want to evaluate the book but rather publisher stance on it. If book is written on liberal or conservative view ,still publisher will go for reviews . Premise doesn't mention that book for which he went for Conservative view was conservative or liberal. This option just doesn't stand to help us evaluate the publisher position.

Hope i am able to explain

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waytowharton · Answer

Hey experts,

KarishmaB   AjiteshArun   ExpertsGlobal5

Why is option D incorrect? If book were written from conservative POV then review has liberal bias(because we are not giving conservative review) and if book were written from liberal POV then the review is balanced. Please do help me understand flaw in my reasoning and understanding of option D.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  waytowharton ,

I think we should take a look at the meaning of the word  conservative .  Conservative , as it is used here, refers to an ideology. Similarly,  liberal  also refers to an ideology. To put it more simply,  conservative  = "right-wing", and  liberal  = "left-wing". So the "conservative review" the publisher is talking about doesn't really have anything to do with the book. It just means that the review expresses  ~  right-wing/traditional views . The second (liberal) review, on the other hand, most likely expresses  ~  left-wing/modern views .

The publisher's argument is about the review(s). Option D is about the book that was the subject of the two reviews, and is therefore irrelevant.

KarishmaB · Answer

The argument talks about the MAGAZINE's views. The magazine published the book review (how a particular book is, their opinion on the book good/bad etc). Whether the reviewer(s) has a conservative or liberal bias is the point of contention. Whether the author of the book itself has liberal or conservative bias, we do not care. Option (D) talks about the book's bias.

What will the reviewer do if she has a conservative bias? She will give a good review to "books supporting conservative ideas" and bad to "books supporting liberal ideas".
What will the reviewer do if she has a liberal bias? She will give a bad review to "books supporting conservative ideas" and good to "books supporting liberal ideas".
Note that if the reviewer calls a conservative book conservative, and a liberal book liberal, we cannot say that she has a bias. She is just spelling out facts. The reviewer gives her opinions. The argument tells us that the reviewer expressed "conservative views" so we know she gave opinions supporting conservative mindset. Then they went out looking for another reviewer, one who has a liberal bias. So in all her reviews, she will support liberal ideas. The magazine sought a liberal bias reviewer after getting a conservative bias review.

Hence, the actual bias of the book is irrelevant to us.

Nehak24 · Answer

Evaluating the cogency of the Magazine?

Elimination technique: Rule out options with deviating terms, concept or entities that are not related to the argument or passage.

A: Other Magazine
B: Unsolicited Book
C: Conserve this option
D: Author. This option refers to the author
E: Readers

Options A,B,D and E mentions reference entities that are not related to the question and not affect evaluation of the Magazine.

C states a scenario where Magazine would take further reviews after it has given its first review which takes a liberal position? Evaluating this will help understand whether the Magazine is biased or not.

The best way to reach the answer is Elimination technique.

Mantrix · Answer

P1: MP: Our magazine does not have the liberal bias.
P2: It is true that a book we reviews turned our to express conservative view, we didn't not publish until we got the liberal position view
C: clearly however we are not bias in favor of liberal views but rather a commitment to balance opinions (We are not liberals bias)

Evaluate?

We dont care about other magazines
No relevance to evaluate conclusion
What if magazine would get the first view as liberal, (Would the magazine make efforts to get the further reviews)(yes, then it is supporting the MP, but if no then it is against the MP)
What are reviews are clearly liberal or conservative views (by questioning that we will be questioning the premise of the CR)
Not relevant

C is the answer clearly

VerbalBot · Answer

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Magazine Publisher: Our magazine does not have a liberal bias. It is t

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