People should patronize businesses that meet high ethical standards, and the news media should help them to patronize...

shunhe on April 5, 2020

Hi @rlquerubin,

Thanks for the question! Let’s take a look at what the stimulus is telling us. The news media should help people patronize businesses that meet high ethical standards. The argument concludes that news media should publicize when businesses perform notably ethical actions, since that would help people patronize businesses that do so.

Now, we’re looking for something that weakens the argument. Note here that one possible weakness is that we don’t really know what it means to “meet high ethical standards.” Let’s take a look now at (B), the correct answer. (B) tells us that meeting high ethical standards is mainly about refraining from unethical behavior, or not doing bad things. This leads to weakening the arguments in two ways. First of all, it’s completely possible for a business to perform a notably ethical action but otherwise practice unethical behavior, which would mean that the news would be publicizing businesses that don’t meet high ethical standards by this definition. Thus, the news media wouldn’t be helping people patronize businesses that meet high ethical standards.

Another problem with (B) is that it also makes it difficult to the media to publicize businesses that do meet high ethical standards. Why? Because high ethical standards are defined as a lack of action; it is not doing bad things that make a business meet high ethical standards. Thus, the media can’t directly publicize businesses that meet high ethical standards by reporting on businesses that perform actions, since high ethical standards are defined by inaction.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.