#9 - Journalists often claim that their investigation of the private lives

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Method-Argument Part. The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[yeltz1877]

Hello,

Could you please explain why answer choice (A) is not appropriate here? It seems to me as though the journalists are making a claim and that the author is attempting to refute that claim. How come that is not the case?

[Dana D]

Hey Yeltz,

On first read through the answer choices, I also saw (A) as a possible contender. However, looking more closely at answer choice (A), it is saying the argument is attempting to refute a claim. In this case, the claim would be that of the journalists - so the argument is attempting to refute the claim that journalists are investigating the private lives of public figures in order to improve society.

When we look at the rest of the argument, though, we see no evidence of the author challenging this claim - the author might actually believe that journalists are doing this in an effort to improve society. Instead, the author is saying that by following through on this practice of investigating private lives, there are negative consequences. In other words, the journalists can claim this all day every day - the author takes no issue with them believing in the justification of this practice - however, there are potentially some undesirable consequences, and that is what the author is pointing out.

[outrojhs]

Hi! I also originally chose answer choice A, and now see why that's incorrect. Would you be able to explain why exactly answer choice B is the correct answer in this situation? I think I'm mainly tripping over the use of justification in the AC, since I can understand that the argument depicts the original statement to have negative consequences. Thanks!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi outrojhs!

This question asks us about the function of the claim that journalists' "investigation of the private lives of political leaders is an effort to improve society," which occurs in the first sentence of the stimulus.

It could help to bracket what (B) is talking about with material from the stimulus. Answer choice (B) states that this claim "mentions a justification [it improves society] that is sometimes offered for a practice [investigating the private lives of political leaders] that, the argument concludes, has undesirable consequences [it's detrimental to society because it makes public figures too concerned with appearances and makes everyone else cynical about their character]." As you can see, answer choice (B) matches up pretty seamlessly in terms of describing the function of that claim in the stimulus.