Ever since a major government scam was exposed to the public by the

Question

Ever since a major government scam was exposed to the public by the media three months ago, government irregularities, however small, have kept surfacing at regular intervals. The government officials assert that the attention given by the media to government affairs has gone up and hence, the media is reporting irregularities that have legitimate explanations and would have gone unnoticed otherwise. Thus, it is the media's over attention to government affairs that is resulting in high irregularity reports, and these are certainly no inexplicable irregularities, the officials maintain.

Which one of the following, if true, would seriously weaken the assertions of the government officials?

A. The media has been scrutinizing the government not only for irregularities and scams but also for its administrative performance.

B. The media is not qualified enough to comment on many of the irregularities because the media lacks comprehensive knowledge of the government records.

C. The government officials have been nonetheless critical of the media attacks on all irregularities pointed out including the recent government scam.

D. The media often tries to project small issues in a big way in order to obtain high viewership.

E. The latest media report indicates that the number of irregularities has actually gone down over the past three months.

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Oppenheimer1945 · Answer

The government officials assert that the attention given by the media to government affairs has gone up and hence, the media is reporting irregularities that have legitimate explanations and would have gone unnoticed otherwise.

A. The media has been scrutinizing the government not only for irregularities and scams but also for its administrative performance
 - Strengthener for government officials assertion

B. The media is not qualified enough to comment on many of the irregularities because the media lacks comprehensive knowledge of the government records.
- Strengthener for government officials assertion

C. The government officials have been nonetheless critical of the media attacks on all irregularities pointed out including the recent government scam.
- opposes the assertion of Govt Officals

D. The media often tries to project small issues in a big way in order to obtain high viewership
- supports the assertion of Govt Officals

E. The latest media report indicates that the number of irregularities has actually gone down over the past three months
 - latest media report is irrelevant. no linkage b/w Govt Official's assertion and Media

Ronilsh · Answer

If the media cannot comment on the irregularity, this could be the reason why bigger scams have not been published in media. So basically, there are even more irregularities than currently published. So, would it weaken the statement by official that there are no irregularities ?

Bunuel · Answer

Experts' Global Video Explanation:

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Can,Will · Answer

The race is between C and E.
E is very tempting as it says number of irregularities has actually gone down. Say, there were 150 irregularities but in past three months they came down to 130 or 100 or 90..But still there is number of irregularities,which needed to be acknowledged by the government. Media did not over hyped these irregularities. 
Whereas C says that media actually did a careful judgement(critical of) of all irregularities.May be with out any prejudiced.

IMO C

TBT · Answer

Still not clear about why E is wrong.Can someone explain.

RenB · Answer

Could you help me break it down using the Conclusion, Assumption and pre-thinking approach? Can you basically help me analyse this as egmat does do in the application files?

Gemmie · Answer

Option C  states: "The government officials have been nonetheless critical of the media attacks on all irregularities pointed out, including the recent government scam."This weakens the government's assertion because if the government officials are critical of media reports on all irregularities, including those that are part of a major scam, it suggests that their criticism is not necessarily due to the over-reporting by the media but rather a defensive stance against being exposed.

This implies that the government might be dismissing legitimate issues, including those related to the scam, by labeling them as media exaggeration, which undermines their claim that these irregularities have legitimate explanations.

A:   The media has been scrutinizing the government not only for irregularities and scams but also for its administrative performance. 
This option simply states that the media is scrutinizing the government more broadly, not necessarily focusing solely on irregularities.

B: The media is not qualified enough to comment on many of the irregularities because the media lacks comprehensive knowledge of the government records 
This option suggests that the media might not be fully informed, but it doesn't challenge the idea that increased attention is leading to more reports.

D: The media often tries to project small issues in a big way in order to obtain high viewership. 
This option implies that the media might be exaggerating issues, but it doesn't negate the fact that there are more irregularities being reported. Besides, this seems to strengthens rather than undermines the official's statment

E: The latest media report indicates that the number of irregularities has actually gone down over the past three months. 
This option contradicts the government's claim by suggesting that the number of irregularities has actually decreased but doesn't undermine the statement the media is paying too much attention to the irregularities. Even if the number decreases, there might still be some irregulities being inexplicable

Dream009 · Answer

I eliminated E - thinking it head on shows premise is a lie. Since the Government officials spoke of high number of irregularities already.

Goldenfuture · Answer

I would still got for E  KarishmaB  - what do you think?

KarishmaB · Answer

(E) doesn't work because the argument talks about "high number of irregularities". So it conflicts what we know. 
But then, (C) is not great either. Though, of the given options, there is no other choice. They are critical about all media reports regarding irregularities does not mean that what they claim is not true. They could even be critical of media's reporting of the Govt scam - but in what manner? It could simply be the way media handled data etc. So (C) isn't a great weakener but the only one one could pick.

Ever since a major government scam was exposed to the public by the

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