PrepTest 112, Section 1, Question 8
It has been claimed that television networks should(86 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(7 more words not shown)
- ANo scientific issues(10 more words not shown)
- BThere are often(19 more words not shown)
- CSome social issues(22 more words not shown)
- DMany scientific issues(16 more words not shown)
- ESome television networks(21 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Does every disagreement deserve equal time? My first reaction is to wonder where that rule stops. Would merely raising a flat-Earth claim entitle it to the same airtime as the scientific account? Disagreement alone doesn't tell us how well the competing positions are supported.
But the author's distinction raises another question. Social issues supposedly deserve equal time because they have important political implications and usually cannot be settled by the available evidence. Why assume scientific issues never share those features? A scientific dispute could matter to public policy, and the evidence currently available might leave questions unresolved.
We don't have to deny that science seeks objective answers. A question can have a right answer without our present evidence being enough to settle it. The argument concerns what is available now, not whether an answer could ever be found.
What we’re looking for
To weaken the conclusion, I'd look for scientific issues that meet the very reasons the author gives for equal time on social issues. If the proposed difference between the categories breaks down, the blanket exemption for science becomes much harder to defend.
Working the answers
- A
This removes one of the stated reasons for equal time from the scientific issues it describes. It therefore supports the author's distinction rather than challenging it. We want science to share the politically important features used to justify the obligation, not to be declared free of them.
- B
More than two views could complicate arranging equal time, but it doesn't show that scientific issues deserve the obligation the author denies them. The argument isn't based on there being exactly two sides. Equal treatment could concern three or more positions without changing the distinction being made between scientific and social topics.
- C
“Seldom” leaves room for some social issues to be settled. C gives examples of that possibility, so it doesn't contradict the premise. More importantly, it doesn't establish that scientific issues share the features that supposedly justify equal time. It remains on the social side of the comparison.
- DCorrect
Many scientific issues have both important political implications and questions that the available evidence cannot definitely settle. Those are the same features the author cites to explain the obligation for social issues.
The argument hasn't supplied a reason those features should count for one category but not the other. D doesn't require us to give every unsupported assertion equal airtime. It shows why the stated reasons fail to justify denying the obligation to programs about scientific issues across the board.
- E
Refusing to air a topic doesn't tell us whether opposing views must receive equal time when a program about it is broadcast. A network airing neither side could give both sides zero time. In any event, what some networks refuse to broadcast doesn't establish what the argument says their obligations should be. E doesn't repair or undermine the proposed difference between the types of issue.
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