Explanation

Creating a filter: the initial phrase "looking at search engine trends" grammatically modifies "evidence," but that's not the intended meaning; the evidence is not doing the looking. We cut to the answer choices for options that begin with a noun that can perform the act of looking.

Applying the filter: our filter leaves us with choices (C) through (E). The reporters found something. That finding is expressed in a statement, so we're going to look for the word "that" to introduce that indirect statement. (C) has it, and (D) and (E) do not. Moreover, choices (D) and (E) have other problems; one of them is that the "despite recent actions" modifier is now ambiguous and could actually refer to the manner in which the evidence does its indicating. The correct answer is (C).