LSAT 9 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q13

LR Question 13 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Criticism that the press panders to public sentiment …

QUESTION TYPE: Must Be True

REASONING:

• The press needs to make a profit to survive.
• If it doesn’t, it would depend on subsidies, which usually come with external influence.
• Honest journalism doesn’t attract subsidies, only propaganda does.

ANALYSIS: The natural inference here is that honest journalism requires profits. Why? Because the press has two choices to survive: profit or subsidies. And we know honest journalism doesn’t attract subsidies.

___________

1. This goes too far. The stimulus never says profits guarantee absolute freedom from control. It’s just lesser danger compared to subsidies.
2. This assumes too much. Subsidies often fund propaganda, but it never says only subsidized presses produce propaganda.
3. This wrongly suggests that the press must choose between subsidy and profit.
4. CORRECT. This is a direct consequence of the logic. See above.
5. This reverses the logic. Honest journalism can’t survive on subsidies, and therefore needs profit. But the stimulus doesn’t say profit requires honesty.