Self-study
Political opinion and analysis outside the mainstream rarely are found on television talk shows, and it might be thought that this state of affairs is a product of the political agenda of the television stations themselves. ██ █████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ █ ███████ █████████ ████████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ██████████
Summary
The author argues that TV talk shows feature boring perspectives because they’re attempting to appeal to the largest possible number of people.
Notable Assumptions
The argument gives support for the claim that TV shows attempt to appeal to large numbers of people, but fails to establish what the preferences of those people are. If viewers don’t prefer bland and innocuous perspectives, then the author’s explanation doesn’t make sense.
The argument relies on the assumption that bland and innocuous perspectives appeal to large numbers of people.
5.
The explanation offered by the ██████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████
a
television station executives ███████ ████ █ █████████ ██████ ██ █████ ███
The author’s claim about the agendas of executives is simply that these agendas don’t explain why TV talk shows primarily feature mainstream opinions. It doesn’t matter whether they happen to have agendas or not.
b
bland and innocuous █████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████
This must be true in order for the conclusion to follow. If it weren’t true—if bland and innocuous opinions were not generally in the mainstream—then it wouldn’t make sense for TV talk shows to feature them in order to appeal to large numbers of people.
c
political analysts outside ███ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████
The argument is about TV talk shows that feature mainstream opinions, so the feelings of non-mainstream analysts are irrelevant.
d
most television viewers ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ████████
The author’s assumption is about what preferences viewers have for the TV they watch, not whether or not they’re prepared to debate anything.
e
the political opinions ██ ██████████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ████████ ███████
The argument is simply that TV shows feature boring perspectives in order to appeal to large numbers of people, so the private opinions of executives are irrelevant. Even if the opinions of executives are reflected in TV shows, this could be because those opinions are part of the mainstream.