When investigators discovered that the director of a local charity had

When investigators discovered that the director of a local charity had repeatedly overstated the number of people his charity had helped, the director accepted responsibility for the deception. However, the investigators claimed that journalists were as much to blame as the director was for inflating the charity’s reputation, since they had naively accepted what the director told them and simply reported as fact the numbers he gave them .

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the investigators’ claim?


(A) Anyone who works for a charitable organization is obliged to be completely honest about the activities of that organization.

(B) Anyone who knowingly aids a liar by trying to conceal the truth from others is also a liar.

(C) Anyone who presents as factual a story that turns out to be untrue without first attempting to verify that story is no less responsible for the consequences of that story than anyone else is.

(D) Anyone who lies to advance his or her own career is more deserving of blame than someone who lies in order to promote a good cause.

(E) Anyone who accepts responsibility for a wrongful act that he or she committed is less deserving of blame than someone who tries to conceal his or her own wrongdoing.