Prompt: EVIDENTIAL SUPPORT & CRITIQUE

The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station.

"Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this time period, most of the complaints received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news program have just canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to the program and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level."

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

According to the business manager of the television station, viewer complaints in the last year were most concerned with station coverage of weather and local news.  But, what were the contents of the viewer complaints?  If the viewer complaints were directed at the quality of the coverage rather than the amount of time devoted to the coverage, then it might be best for the station to focus their joint attention on creating more meaningful local news coverage and more accurate weather forecasting.  After all, what good is an unreliable weather station?  While this does not speak directly against the business manager’s proposal that more time be devoted to weather and local news, it surely places a demand on the station for analyzing the viewer complaints and responding appropriately.

And again, according to the business manager of the television station, local businesses have cancelled their late night advertising contracts.  Businesses can cancel advertising costs for many reasons, including their own diminished capacity to pay their basic bills.  If it were the case that previous advertisers canceled their contracts due to their own intrinsic set of demands, then increasing local news and weather coverage on the station would surely have no effect on securing the existing contracts.  At best, the television manager has given us cause to investigate further the reasons underlying the losses in advertising contracts, not increasing the amount of time devoted to local news and weather coverage during late-night broadcasting.