Q20 - Sarah: Reporters, by allotting time

[sumukh09]

I'm not too sure why E is the correct answer here. Sarah would definitely agree with E but I don't see how Ramon would disagree with E. Ramon says that reporters should never interpret the news but doesn't give an explanation on what he thinks qualifies as interpreting the news. His use of the word "interpret" is consistent with Sarah's. How's Ramon saying not to do something ie) should never interpret the news, when he disagrees with what interpreting the news entails as the answer choice suggests?

Basically Sarah says: journalists always exercise their judgment on what is newsworthy and what isn't, so they're interpreting the news.

Ramon Says: They shouldn't do that; once they decide which event is newsworthy they should relay the facts untainted.

My problem with this question is that Sarah clearly defines what she means by interpreting the news and Ramon doesn't seem to have an issue with her definition.

[tommywallach]

Hey Sumukh,

So, to put this together:

Sarah: Reporters always interpret the news, because just choosing what to report is interpreting.

Ramon: Reporters should never interpret the news. Once they choose it to be worthy of reportage, they must be purely factual.

(A) This is the trickiest answer. Sarah believes that reporters interpret the news when they choose what to report, but not inherently when they actually do the reporting. Sarah and Ramon likely agree that the actual reportage can be factual. The question is about whether choosing the stories to report on is an act of interpretation. Notice that both Sarah and Ramon discuss that issue at length.

(B) Odds are good both Sarah and Ramon would agree on this.

(C) We don't know that Sarah would disagree with this, because she doesn't say what reporters' "primary responsibility" is.

(D) This doesn't even make sense.

(E) This is the philosophical split between Sarah and Ramon. Sarah believes that choosing an event is inherently interpretive. Ramon says that you can choose a story as being newsworthy, which isn't interpretive.

Answer choice (A) is definitely the trickiest other answer choice. Good luck in the future!

-t

[christine.trg]

I have a contention with the explanation for (A)'s incorrectness. The STIM does say for Sarah that "Reporters ALWAYS interpret the news." ALWAYS applies to ALL situations with regards to how reporters handle the news, whether it be in writing news stories, presenting them, picking them, or investigating them. Allotting time for the some events and not others can be applied to each of these activities, and b/c Sarah says it ALWAYS happens, my gut is that we must take that to mean it happens for all of the activities just mentioned. Thus, I think that Sarah would agree with (A).

It's in Ramon's court where we don't find any agreement/disagreement, b/c we only know what Ramon thinks reporters shouldn't do and what they're obliged to do. Ramon might acknowledge the (to him) unfortunate truth of (A) and yet still maintain what reporters ought to do (give us the news straight). But his lack of commentary on what reporters actually do is why we can't say he either agrees/disagrees with (A).

Just my 2 cents.