#3 - Balance is particularly important when reporting the

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Main Point. The correct answer choice is (B)

The author begins by describing the virtues of balanced reporting in civil wars and conflicts, but cautions against going too far. Since common sense dictates that justice and fairness are not always equally distributed between the parties in conflict, balanced reporting must weigh the competing values of objectivity against the moral imperatives of fairness and justice.

Answer choice (A): Only the perverse interpretation of balanced reporting presents a picture in which all sides have equal justification. This answer choice distorts the main premise of the argument and fails to capture its conclusion.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. This is the only answer choice that seeks to balance the competing imperatives of objective reporting against the need to stay true to the basic tenets of fairness and justice.

Answer choice (C): While this is clearly an inference from the last sentence in the stimulus, its function is to support the main conclusion of the argument, which is about balanced reporting. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (D): Even though balance is particularly important when reporting the background of civil wars and conflicts (first sentence), this is not an inference derived from common sense. Furthermore, the main point of this argument has to do with the complex and competing imperatives of balanced reporting, not with its overall importance. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (E): This answer choice goes too far. Even though balanced reporting requires us to weigh the competing requirements of morality and objectivity, we cannot say for sure that such reporting can never be realized. Furthermore, the reason for such failure would have nothing to do with the inherently subjective nature of judgments — the stimulus offers no support for such an inference.

[PositiveThinker]

I just need help with the grammar of answer choice B.

Can someone just re-word that answer choice in laymans terms so a feeble mind like mine can understand?
I only ask because this type of wording could come up again and I want to be able to properly translate it and things like it when I need to.

Thank you!

I understood the stimulus and eliminated the wrong answers but B was just so convoluted. Specifically the part "where they occur no less fairly presenting the views of each party in conlict"..

That "no less fairly" is a doozy.

[Kristina Moen]

Hi PositiveThinker!

Great job eliminating the wrong answers and checking to make sure you understand the correct answer. It is time well spent to address wording that is confusing, so you can understand it quickly if you see it again on test day.

The phrase "no less than" splits up the sentence in two parts. You are comparing two things. It's like a scale! I will underline the two parts in the sentence:

Balanced reporting requires impartially revealing injustices where they occur (let's call this A) no less than fairly presenting the views of each party in a conflict.(let's call this B).

Balanced reporting requires A no less than B. What that means is that A and B must be valued at least equally. A cannot be valued less than B. It's like if I said "John is not shorter than Tim." What that means is that Jim at least as tall as Tim, possibly taller!

So, to put it another way, balanced reporting requires us to value impartially revealing injustices where they occur at least as much as fairly presenting the views of each party in a conflict.

Hope this helps!