LSAT Question Explanation
PT 105, Section 1, Question 18
Necessary AssumptionArgument structure
News can't serve it's intended function in a consumer society.
The intended function of news is to deliver information on which we can act. But in a consumer society news becomes a product to be manufactured, there is an enormous industry to produce news and we consume a huge amount of it, and news becomes primarily entertainment.
Explanation
There is an underlying assumption that causes this argument to be flawed. The evidence shows that news becomes primarily entertaining in a consumer society. But the conclusion then leaps to saying it can't also deliver us information on which we can act. The author seems to more or less assume that news being primarily entertaining and delivering information on which we can act are mutually exclusive.
Answer choices
We don't know what news that serves it's intended function should do besides deliver information upon which we can act. Maybe it could entertain a little bit. We don't need this claim in (A) to make the argument from the stimulus, which was that news that primarily entertains cannot deliver information upon which we can act.
People may want entertaining news, but the argument is about whether or not news serves it's intended function, to deliver information. People's preferences don't matter with regards to this argument.
We don't need this because even if news had more than one important function, that wouldn't tell us that primarily entertaining news can't deliver information upon which we can act.
Here we go. The author leapt from saying that news is primarily entertaining to concluding that it doesn't give us information, so this assumption is needed for that conclusion to be true. It fills the gap in the argument.
This is not necessary, we already have premises in the argument telling us that in a consumer society news becomes primarily entertaining.