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 period, most of the complaint

The business manager of a television station recommends expanding coverage of weather and local news on all channel's news programs. This statement is based on evidence which is connected with the conclusion by several assumptions which should be carefully scrutinized in order to give a comprehensive estimation of soundness of the argument.

To begin with, we are told that since the alteration took place most of the spectators' complaints were about station's coverage of weather and local news. However, perhaps these viewers' disappointment is caused by content of these news and forecasts or other factors such as the way by which this information is conveyed to viewers. In other words, author's assumption that viewers' reaction is caused by span of time devoted to local news and forecasts is unwarranted.

The second evidence is that local businesses canceled contracts with the station about demonstrated ads during the late-night news program. It is believed that the reason is the alteration of time allocated to local news and forecasts; however, other unstated factors may lead to the result, for instance, the country's economy in deep stagnation and businesses have to find a way to reduce expenditures. Moreover, the local businesses may discover new more cheap and effective ways of advertising, for example, via the internet. Consequently, these neglected factors may lead to the cancelation of contracts.

Finally, the arguer concludes that in order to attract viewers and stop loosing advertising revenue the channel should widen coverage of weather forecasts and local news on all news programs. First of all, the writer said nothing about attracting new spectators before and thus their reaction on proposed alteration is unknown, perhaps, they may negatively react on it due to the fact that some other information ought to be removed in order to give its time to the local news. Moreover, we have displayed that writer does not manage to create a solid support for his belief in the reasons of the loosing of advertisers' money, thus the policy may not bring the expected result. What is more, the spreading of the alteration on all news programs seems to be unreasonable; perhaps, businesses, which place their ads in news, which are translated in other times, are satisfied with the current situation and therefore, the suggested idea may disappoint them and consequently worsen the today's problem.

In conclusion, the argument states that in order to attract viewers and prevent loosing advertising revenues the station should distribute more time on local news and weather; however, the author does not manage to create a strong support and thus the results of fulfillment of proposed suggestion is unpredictable.