Marcus:  For most ethical dilemmas the journalist is likely to face, traditional journalistic ethics is clear, adequa...

tselimovic July 20, 2014

Correction: What makes C the correct answer?

1111 August 5, 2014

Because traditional journalism is not right. It is refuted by Anita saying how, in reality, journalists need to take some time with their topics and decide if they are deemed worthy enough to write about or not. You can't just start writing right away.

Naz August 8, 2014

Marcus's point is that traditional journalistic ethics is clear for most ethical dilemmas. He cites the example that when a journalist has uncovered newsworthy information, they need to go to press with it as soon as possible.

Anita is not disagreeing with Marcus, she is merely pointing out that what he is describing is not typically the case. Normally, when a journalist has some information, they are in a quandary as to whether it is yet important or "newsworthy." Thus, the principle that Marcus cites, i.e. the journalist having to immediately go to press with newsworthy material, is not applicable to most journalistic situations, since it takes times to determine whether or not information is newsworthy.

So, it is not that Anita is refuting Marcus, merely that she is pointing out that his principle is not applicable, i.e. helpful, in most cases.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

stormbeeler August 29, 2015

I keep getting hung up on answer (A). In Anita saying that in a typical case the guidance is inadequate, is she not saying that Marcus is incorrect in his claim? Or do the words inadequate and incorrect differentiate the two choices and or is most ethical claims different from all together from A typical kind of situation? I also apologize because I'm sure this post made more sense in my head than it will when you read it .

Naz September 9, 2015

Anita doesn't think that Marcus's claim that traditional journalistic ETHICS is clear is incorrect, she thinks that his claim cannot be used consistently. That is why answer choice (A) is not applicable. Answer choice (C), on the other hand, clearly expresses her point.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Philidjel October 7, 2015

Why is B not correct?

Philidjel October 7, 2015

Why is B not correct?

Naz October 15, 2015

Marcus explains that for most ethical dilemmas the journalist is likely to face, traditional journalistic ethics is clear, i.e. when journalists have uncovered newsworthy information, they should go to the press with it as soon as possible without any delay motivated by the journalists' personal or professional interests.

Anita is not stating that this is incorrect, merely she explains that in the typical case, a journalist is not sure whether the information they have is yet important or, as Marcus puts its, "newsworthy."

Therefore, (B) is incorrect because Anita is not stating that Marcus is wrong in claiming that traditional journalistic ethics is essentially correct for most ethical dilemmas in journalism, rather that the application of traditional journalistic ethics is difficult because typically journalists might not be sure of whether information they have is yet important.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

virgiebeatriz May 12, 2017

So what is the difference between inadequate and wrong because Anita says "the guidance is inadequate" so in other words it isn't enough and thus wrong, no? Is that too much of an assumption?

Mehran May 14, 2017

The difference is that Anita is not taking issue with Marcus's claim, so she is not saying his claim is wrong or incorrect.

She takes issue with its applicability, i.e. "in the typical case . . . this guidance is inadequate."

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Brett-Lindsay June 23, 2020

This isn't a question - it's just an observation.

When I was reading the stimulus, I almost failed to notice that the non-essential clause in Anita's final sentence was exactly that: non-essential. The two commas tell us grammatically that the phrase, 'where a journalist has some information but is in a quandary about whether it is yet important or "newsworthy,"' can be removed without altering the most important elements of the sentence. Its function is merely to provide supporting information.

Realizing that the main sentence read, "But in the typical case, this guidance is inadequate" helped me understand that she really WAS talking about typical cases and not some special case involving "a quandary."

I know for myself, a solid grammatical knowledge of English is sometimes proving to be helpful with parsing sentences and separating the essential from the non-essential.

I think that most high scorers just notice these things intuitively, but I don't - I need to rely on grammar.

I'm guessing that some others out there would benefit from some basic grammatical knowledge, especially if they're still struggling with questions despite having read tons of explanations.