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 argument that the restoration of time devoted to weather and local news will substantially alleviate the current problem of revenue loss may seem logical at first glance. The author makes a valid argument, one that would be correct if its premises were true. However, the manager's conclusion relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence.

First, the manager assumes that restoring time devoted to weather and local news will cease advertising revenue loss based on complaints from viewers. In fact, the complaints might entirely be irrelevant. For example, the complaints are not sufficient to explain why local businesses are canceling advertising contracts. It could be any number of reasons such as extremely low viewership or that local businesses simply did not have the money to continue the advertising contracts.

Additionally, the manager does not provide evidence that restoring time devoted to weather and local news will attract more viewers and avoid losing advertising revenues. In its current form, the argument implies that the problem is based on viewer complaints. However, there is no guaranteed correlation between increased viewership and increased advertising revenue. The argument's conclusion requires more supporting evidence such as statistical data that demonstrates a strong likelihood of increased viewership and revenue.

The notion that viewership and revenue will increase would be strengthened by complaints from the local businesses as to why they are canceling their contracts. The manager's argument would be strengthened considerably if there was evidence supporting that changing the program will result in more viewers and advertising revenue.

In conclusion, the manager would not necessarily be wrong to assert that listening to viewer complaints will attract more viewers. After all, a business is all about pleasing the customers. But to support the conclusion that the change will increase advertising revenue, the manager must provide more conclusive evidence that the change in the late-night news program will, in fact, attract more viewers and avoid any lost revenue.