PT19.S4.Q10 - audiences find a speaker more convincing

chrijani7

http://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-19-section-4-question-10/

I am confused as to why A is the answer choice and not B.
According to Kaplan, they say if A is correct then it'll be a rare candidate who takes a chance on the authors strategy, as the media may only air the opposition and disregard the later support. They further that by stating that media is a huge part of national campaigning. But wouldn't that be an outside assumption we would make. And aren't we only suppose to take what is given within the stimulus to support our answers? Because that is why I disregarded A as an answer, thinking who cares what the media covers because it doesn't limit the SPEECH, the speech is still given and still heard from those attending and such. Where as if you choose B if many people do not find politicians in the first place then that would make practically any strategy they choose ineffective, no one trust them... Can someone help me where my thinking has gone wrong here?

sicsemper

I don't think it's necessary to assume that the media is a "huge part of national campaigning", but we can safely intuit that debates are the subject of some news. Since this is a (form of a) weaken question, we should be on the lookout for an answer that provides an additional premise that contradicts or does not support the conclusion (conclusion being that candidates for national pol office should use this argumentative technique). Skipping answer choice A:

B - There's no clear takeaway from this. This applies to any argument style that a politician may use. Since it's given in the stimulus that politicians are going to have debates, the answer choice here doesn't discredit the argumentative technique in question over any other technique that a pol may use.
C - This supports the conclusion, because we read in the stimulus that the technique makes speakers appear "fair minded and trustworthy".
D - Similar to C. Supports the conclusion as the technique involves consideration of the opponent's side.
E - Size of audience is irrelevant here.

On A - Assuming that some reporting of debates takes place, this suggests a potential cost to use of the technique that would give candidates reason to not use the technique. Weakens the conclusion that candidates should use the technique.