LSAT 79, Logical Reasoning II, Q10, LSATHacks

LR Question 10 Explanation, by LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: Journalist: Some critics argue that as the…

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: The critics are wrong to say that entertaining news has a lower caliber of reporting.

REASONING: The greatest journalists have been entertaining.

ANALYSIS: This argument is assuming that great journalists have a high caliber of reporting. We can prove the argument right by explicitly stating the assumption.

___________

1. CORRECT. The stimulus tells us that the greatest journalists were the most entertaining. So, if they also had the highest caliber of reporting then those two qualities aren’t contradictory.
   Note that the critics’ claim is very literal: any increase in entertainment will always lower the caliber of reporting. So, these great journalists provide a clear counterexample which disproves the critics’ claim.
2. This tells us what type of person becomes a great journalist. It doesn’t tell us anything about the caliber of their reporting.
3. What a vague answer. “Valuable in some sense” could mean that great journalism makes people happy, or that it earns money. It’s hard for an answer this vague to provide any support for any conclusion. 
4. This is a very weak claim. You could likewise say that “war” and “happy moments” are not mutually exclusive categories. But war nonetheless tends to be a destroyer of happiness.
5. This single data point seems to confirm the critics. It doesn’t help prove the author right. We need to show that entertainment and a high caliber of reporting go hand and hand.
   (Also, this answer mentions “informative”, which isn’t necessarily the same thing as a high caliber of reporting.)

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