All any reporter knows about the accident is what the press agent has said. Therefore, if the press agent told every...

Ashley123 November 25, 2021

Answer Choice A

Hello, I'm having trouble understanding why A is the incorrect answer. In the video explanation, she said that "the press agent did not tell everything about the accident to any reporter" meant "the press agent told some reporter everything about the incident" but wouldn't this contradict what answer choice A is saying? And just because the press agent didn't tell everything to anyone, couldn't it still be possible that the press agent told a little bit of the same information to every reporter which would mean they all have the same information? Therefore, not being able to scoop? Please provide some clarity on this one. Are we just supposed to find a conditional statement that contradicts the conclusion by finding what guarantees the opposite of that conclusion (in this case, no reporter has more info than any others--> Not scoop)? And the sufficient condition is what will be our answer? I also saw that the ending premise and conclusion incorrectly negated the transitive statement without reversing them but I had a hard time connecting that to the answer choices.

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Jay-Etter January 23, 2022

Hi Ashley,
I'd say you actually got the key inference about this question in your response! Note that you said "couldn't it still be possible that the press agent told a little bit of the same information to every reporter which would mean they all have the same information, therefore not being able to scoop". That's precisely it here! Answer E matches that. If no reporter knows any more about the accident than any other reporter, then they were all told the same information by the press agent and therefore nobody will be able to scoop, which is the flaw in the argument.

A doesn't accurately represent a flaw in the argument. Even if A is the case that the press agent didn't tell everything about the accident to any reporter, maybe they told one reporter 99% of the info and the other reporters 50% of the info, which would still allow for scooping.

Hope this helps, feel free to follow up with further questions