PT74.S4.Q21 - Letter to Editor: alien spaceship

syjulie11

I've been staring at this question too long and need someone to help me understand.

Admin Note: I deleted the Stimulus and the Answer Choices as it is against our Forum Rules to post LSAT questions on the Forum.

https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-74-section-4-question-21/

Ashley2018-1

So Mr. H saw an alien spaceship and a newspaper reported on it. The argument claims the newspaper should not have been skeptical of his claims and shows an "unjustified bias" because Mr. H is a trusted community member. This argument is faulty and we are trying to find a principle that would conflict with the argument: so that the newspaper should have been skeptical and was not exhibiting an unjustified bias.

A.) "If a claim is extraordinary" (admittedly extraordinary claim of spotting an alien spaceship), it should be presented uncritically (the news report should not be skeptical of it) only if it is backed with robust evidence (evidence from Mr. H). So the evidence we have here isn't what I would call "of an extraordinarily high standard." It's just a community member who claims to have seen an alien spaceship; he may have just made an honest mistake or was lying so it's understandable that the news report was skeptical of his claims. But if that were the case, then this principle would contradict the argument in the stimulus: that the article "would not have been skeptical" and that there was an "unjustified bias."
B.) There is no intermediary; the testimony came directly from H
C.) "trusted source in the past"-we don't know if H was a trusted source in the past
D.) The issue in this stimulus is not Mr. H presenting his claims but how the newspaper reported on them (skeptical versus not)
E.) So should the newspaper have been skeptical or not?

syjulie11

Thank you ashley.tien! Just one more confirmation:

"should not be presented uncritically" = "should be presented critically" = "be presented with skepticism"

Is this a correct understanding of answer choice A sentence?

Ashley2018-1

Yeah I think so because to be critical is to show skepticism