Are you still reading the other newspaper in town? Did you know that

Question

Are you still reading the other newspaper in town? Did you know that the  Daily Bugle  is owned by an out-of-town business syndicate that couldn’t care less about the people of Gotham City? Read the  Daily Clarion , the only real voice of the people of Gotham City!

Which of the following most directly refutes the argument raised in the advertisement above?

(A) Over half of the advertising revenues of the  Daily Clarion  come from firms whose headquarters are located outside of Gotham City.
(B) The  Daily Clarion  usually devotes more of its pages to out-of-town news than does the  Daily Bugle .
(C) Nearly 40 percent of the readers of the  Daily Clarion  reside outside the limits of Gotham City.
(D) The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the  Daily Bugle  have lived and worked in Gotham City for ten years or more.
(E) The  Daily Bugle  has been published in Gotham City for a longer time than has the  Daily Clarion .

coaks · Accepted Answer

B isn't the best choice, I don't think, because the questions in the passage are concerned with the people running the papers not the content of the papers.

You could turn the questions into statements to help clarify.

1a. The Daily Bugle is owned by an out-of-town business syndicate.
1b. The out-of-town business syndicate couldn't care less about the people of Gotham City.

...

Conclusion: The Daily Clarion is the only real voice of the people of Gotham City.

B is an option but you could argue that even if The Daily Clarion devotes more space to foreign news, as long as it's from the perspective of residents of Gotham City, its still the true voice of the people.

Although the out-of-town business syndicate couldn't care less about the people of Gotham City, if the editors (essentially the voice of the paper) are from Gotham City, it would be difficult to claim they're not speaking for the town residents. At least not without additional info, I would say. That's why I think D is a slightly better choice.

Igor010 · Answer

Consider this: One newspaper devotes 3 pages while having 100 pages. The other devotes 2 pages while having 3 pages at all. :-D

So, this choice is wrong. D is correct.

ludwigfraboulet · Answer

The answer is D, The argument assumes that the Daily Budgle is not the real voice of the people of the Gotham City because the Daily Bugle might be own by an out of town, however it doesn't mean the owner writes the article. Only the answer D refutes well the whole argument.

sanjayism · Answer

what wrong with B

(B) The Daily Clarion usually devotes more of its pages to out-of-town news than does the Daily Bugle.

since The Daily Clarion usually devotes more of its pages to out-of-town news, so it missing the town's news and nor a real voice of town.

mysterio · Answer

conclusion :  daily clarion is real voice because daily bugle is owned by out of town business syndicate which care less about people of Gotham city

Which of the following most directly refutes the argument raised in the advertisement above?

(A) Over half of the advertising revenues of the Daily Clarion come from firms whose headquarters are located outside of Gotham City.  ad revenues has nothing to do with what gets published in Daily clarion  
(B) The Daily Clarion usually devotes more of its pages to out-of-town news than does the Daily Bugle.  may be number of pages for daily bugle for news related to Gotham city is still larger than number of pages dedicated by daily clarion for gotham city's news  
(C) Nearly 40 percent of the readers of the Daily Clarion reside outside the limits of Gotham City.  out of scope. who reads have no impact on what gets published 
(D) The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the Daily Bugle have lived and worked in Gotham City for ten years or more.  if all members of editorial staff of daily bugle live in gotham than the articles paper contain be more Representative of opinion of gotham city resident. IMO correct answer 
(E) The Daily Bugle has been published in Gotham City for a longer time than has the Daily Clarion.  out of scope

GyMrAT · Answer

Question Type: Logical Flaw

Premise 1: The Daily Bugle is owned by an out of town syndicate.

Premise 2: The Daily Bugle does not care about the people of Gotham City

Conclusion: Read the Daily Clarion, the only real voice of the people of Gotham City!

Analysis: The argument's author assumes that the ownership influences the content of the newspaper. An out of town owned newspaper cannot be the real voice of the people of Gotham city, since Gotham city is not represented in the newspaper's ownership.

(A) Over half of the advertising revenues of the Daily Clarion come from firms whose headquarters are located outside of Gotham City. -  Advertising revenues cannot be connected to content of the newspaper. Incorrect 
(B) The Daily Clarion usually devotes more of its pages to out-of-town news than does the Daily Bugle. -  Does not mean the remaining pages are not focused on news related to real issues of Gotham city. Incorrect. 
(C) Nearly 40 percent of the readers of the Daily Clarion reside outside the limits of Gotham City. -  Still majority readers are from Gotham city. Incorrect 
(D) The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the Daily Bugle have lived and worked in Gotham City for ten years or more. -  The content owners are from Gotham city, hence they represent the voice of Gotham city. Correct. 
(E) The Daily Bugle has been published in Gotham City for a longer time than has the Daily Clarion. -  Does not directly imply that the news in Daily Bugle is primarily about Gotham city. Incorrect

Answer D.

Thanks,
GyM

singhkniraj · Answer

Thanks for a descriptive explanation. 
Consider this though "The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the Daily Bugle have lived and worked in Gotham City for ten years or more"
The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the Daily Clarion have lived and worked in Gotham City for  twenty  years or more" 
which would be better choice now D or B which can selected on the basis of more number of pages is directly proporation to the representation of voice of localities.

amoljain · Answer

Hello Expert

n the stated question step, it says that "Daily Bugle..couldn't care less". As in option D, it assumes that if someone has resided in the city for a long period of time (10 years or more), he should care more about the problems in the city (voice of the people). However, if he has worked a long time ago and now for 30 years has been living outside the city, he would not know the current problems.

Option D is too broad in my opinion.

However, from the given options, if we look at Option B, we can say that Daily Charion devotes more pages to out of town news, which would imply that they are more focused on the news not from the city itself.
(As an argument, we can say that the number of pages of the 2 newspapers could be different, but of the given options, this seems more plausible)

Your views are highly appreciated. Thanks.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Premise / Background Info - Daily Bugle is an outside newspaper and doesn't care about people of Gotham City
Conclusion - Read Daily Clarion, the only real voice of Gotham City (strong tone)

The assumption is that an outside newspaper can't speak for people of Gotham City or that there is no other newspaper other than Daily Clarion.

Lets look at the options now.

(A) Over half of the advertising revenues of the Daily Clarion come from firms whose headquarters are located outside of Gotham City. -- advertising revenues have nothing to do about our argument. Eliminate. Tangential and irrelevant to the argument.

(B) The Daily Clarion usually devotes more of its pages to out-of-town news than does the Daily Bugle. -- More pages devoted may not necessarily translate to better reporting. Keep nonetheless. After reading D, we can see that this does not attack the argument's reasoning (Daily Bugle is an outsider very directly). Having more pages could potentially just strengthen the argument. Eliminate.

(C) Nearly 40 percent of the readers of the Daily Clarion reside outside the limits of Gotham City. -- That is irrelevant to our argument. 60% still do reside in Gotham city. Maybe Gotham City is famous and people everywhere want to read about it.

(D) The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the Daily Bugle have lived and worked in 
Gotham City for ten years or more. -- Goes against our reasoning that Daily Bugle is an "outsider" and doesn't "care" about people of Gotham City. Correct choice.

(E) The Daily Bugle has been published in Gotham City for a longer time than has the Daily Clarion. -- Spurious reporting for a longer period - strengthens the argument? Eliminate.

nithyak · Answer

Hi GMATNinja
Isn't this the premise?: "Did you know that the Daily Bugle is owned by an out-of-town business syndicate that couldn't care about the people of Gotham city?"
As per my understanding/learning thus far, the premise is taken as true and irrefutable; and only the conclusion "Read the Daily Clarion, the only real voice of the people of Gotham City!" can be refuted. So answer choice D cannot be correct right? Please let me know if I'm wrong here

Sharing below another question where the correct answer choice weakens the premise:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/a-law-requir ... egulations.

I'm thoroughly confused now 'cuz what I had understood as a thumb rule was to never attack the premise!

rsvelc · Answer

Hi,
Thanks for the explanation, I do understand why B can be eliminated. It's quantity against quality. Daily Clarion may have published more pages about out-of-town news(Maybe they thought they could cover areas which Daily bugle didn't, also rest of pages of Daily Clarion newspaper talking about Gotham City News have more good stuff than Daily Bugle's.

But I also can't convince myself that D can refute the argument.
(D) The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the Daily Bugle have lived and worked in Gotham City for ten years or more. -- Yeah it aligns to the premise they're from out-of-town. But what's the guarantee that they cared to print the truthful news about Gotham City? Maybe Daily Clarion is right about it. This option is broad enough to say that Daily Bugle editors still cared about Gotham City. So I eliminated the option.

Can you please help explain, how to proceed with these views?

Samwc · Answer

I have little doubt about option D as all editor and member have lived in Gotham city that does not mean they know the current scenario as news is current situation?

SatvikVedala · Answer

Hi Samwc

I will try to address your doubt regarding option D. It is mentioned that " The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the Daily Bugle have lived and worked in Gotham City for ten years or more. ". Please understand that option says "have" not "had" implying editor and members have been working in Gotham from past ten years or more. The concern in the question is regarding the ownership of Daily Bugle not editorialship.

Also
Option A can be eliminated as it speaks about advertising revenues which is not the concern of argument
Option B can be eliminated considering a case where 10 pages are dedicated to gotham out of 20 in Daily Clarion against 5 pages out of 10 in Daily Bugle
Option C can be eliminated as it is out of scope (not part of concern)
Option D can be addressed from the explanation above
Option E can be eliminated as it is out of scope (not part of concern)

If you like the explanation, please give it a kudos

Thanks
Satvik

NPProb · Answer

Another typical poor-quality question.
I saw people arguing that
 
and
 
but if you would like to say this is why D is better than B, I could also contend that:
"Since Daily Bugle devotes more space to Gotham City, they care more about the people and lives in Gotham, no matter what kind of perspective they have, they focus more on the local life after all. While on the other hand, even though the editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff are the people who will write the articles, they have to be controlled by the business syndicate behind the newspaper, because those are the people who pay their salary."
And I don't think those "reasons" I quoted are more convincing than mine, as I have pointed out, this is   another typical poor-quality question  .

cosimogrover · Answer

Heart of the passage is clearly that the Daily clarion is the only real voice of gotham city and not daily bugle. But here in option D it is no where mentioned that the ownership is different, it is just that the workers (editorial etc.) are from the city. Why can't it be refuted on that ground?? Whereas option B seems most plausible with Daily clarion clearly more focused on news from out of town and thus not the real voice of people of gotham city

WhitEngagePrep · Answer

First, I'd like to agree with NPProb about the quality of this question - it doesn't seem very GMAT-like (at least in what i've seen over the years). But if we want to ignore that fact, only answer choice D speaks to the language in the conclusion that one paper is the "voice" of the people. Whether that voice is speaking about local issues or foreign issues, the question posed in the conclusion is about whether the paper is speaking FOR Gotham residents. As others have noted, temping trap B also fails under the issues of proportion and that writing about out-of-town new can still be in the voice of the Gotham people. I'd also throw in the issue that we don't really know how much more. If both papers are 150 pages, and Clarion devotes 5 pages while the Bugle devotes 4, is that enough to actually matter? It also says usually, which just means over 50% of the time, so it could be that 51% of the time they write a tiny bit more about out-of-town news, while 49% of the time they write a whole lot less. This choice is too ambiguous for the impact to be clear. Finally, I wanted to address a question from nithyak above: I would say that if a premise is presented as a verifiable fact (e.g. the Clarion is owned by an out-of-town business syndicate ), then you will not see answers that either strengthen or weaken that piece of evidence. However, if the premise is an opinion or belief (e.g. the business syndicate couldn't care less about the people of Gotham city ), then that premise is up for attack or support. CR arguments are just as likely to be supported by evidence as they are beliefs, so it's not abnormal to have a strengthen/weaken/assumption question address a claim being used as a premise! So I think the rule you can take is "never attack a fact" - so if an argument tells you that the paper is owned by out-of-towners, don't expect to see an answer come back with something like "turns out that was a lie and they weren't actually owned by out-of-towners after all." Hope this helps!

Whit

PSKhore · Answer

I am confused between B and D, but both require additional assumptions:

For D to be correct, we have to assume that the editor-in-chief and all the other members are the real voices/are concerned about people of Gotham City!
Them simply being from the same city doesn't make a difference.

For B, Daily Clarion usually devotes more of its pages to out-of-town news than does the  Daily Bugle . Doesn't matter who devotes how many pages, the news on the pages devoted to Gotham City has to be the real voice of the people of Gotham City.

Bunuel  please help!

Bunuel · Answer

The ad’s argument is:  Daily Bugle is owned by outsiders, so it doesn’t care about Gotham; Daily Clarion is the only true voice of Gotham.

What directly refutes that? If you show that  Daily Bugle actually is run by people of Gotham who know and care about the city , then the ownership point loses force.

That’s exactly what choice D does: it says the entire editorial staff of Daily Bugle has lived and worked in Gotham City for 10+ years. That directly undermines the ad’s claim.

Choice B (Clarion devotes more pages to out-of-town news) doesn’t refute the argument. It only criticizes Clarion, but it doesn’t address the claim that Bugle can’t be a real voice because of its ownership.

So the correct answer is D.

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