July 2020 LSAT Section 1 Question 24

Editorial: Last year, many polls found that most people in our country claimed to be tired of television news progra...

JosephRocco on August 16, 2022

Question # 24 - Editorial Assumption Question

Just wanted to run something past to the teachers on this question for some help and mentoring. I would think that Answer Choices "A", "B", "D" are incorrect because they are just worded way too strongly. For example, "A" says "everyone" and "B" says "almost everyone" and "D" says "none" Could they be eliminated because of this? I picked Answer Choice "C" though. Why is Answer Choice "E" a better pick? Is it because "C" is half true? While at least some of the people responded to polls, it's not because they believed their responses were portraying themselves as they actually were?

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Emil-Kunkin on August 16, 2022

Hi JosephRocco,

We are not being asked exactly what is true, rather, we are being asked what the author must believe. C is incorrect because it is possible that the author believes that everyone who responded believed they were portraying themselves accurately. The author makes an allowance for the possibility that people are not aware of their misperception.

E is correct because the author has to believe that at least some people did not wish to be perceived as not liking TV news- if this were not true, the author's argument would fall apart.

While the strength of the other three is an issue, I would also encourage you to try to understand why the author could still believe them to be true.