Q14 - Journalist: It is unethical for journalists

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Procedure

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: It's missing a crucial distinction to say that withholding relevant info during an interview is unethical.
Evidence: Withholding info is failing to prevent a false belief, whereas lying actively encourages a false belief, which is what makes LYING unethical.

Answer Anticipation:
The author's argument completely hinges on isolating the nuanced distinction between lying and withholding information. She explains how the latter fails to do something good and the former actively does something bad. So I would expect some language about "makes a distinction so that the label of UNETHICAL applies to one but not the other".

Correct Answer:
A

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) Nice! This matches perfectly.

(B) There is no "controversial" distinction.

(C) "Applies to all cases under discussion" is the opposite of what we're talking about. This author is saying that "unethical" only applies to lying.

(D) There are no specific counterexamples presented.

(E) The two cases are presumably "lying" vs. "withholding info". What is the moral principle that applies in one case and not in the other? The moral principle that "actively encouraging a false belief is unethical" applies in all cases. It's just in the case of "withholding info", a journalist isn't doing anything to actively encourage a false belief. That's why the author seems to condone this behavior. The author's conclusion is not clarifying or defending a moral principle. The author's conclusion is simply attacking some other people's argument, and in doing so it looks like the author is somewhat defending journalists' practice of withholding some relevant info during an interview.

Takeaway/Pattern: Procedure questions are simply "if it matches, it's right". The challenge is just matching up abstract language with specific details from the argument.

#officialexplanation

[jenoh82223]

Can someone please explain why (E) is incorrect?

[Youngstar2028]

Answer choice E is incorrect because the journalist is not arguing by "clarifying and defending" a moral principle; instead, the journalist is pointing out a difference- this argument fails to recognize the distinction between failing to prevent... to show that the conclusion some argue -withholding information and lying are the same should not be drawn based on this "similarity"