[Foundation-l] LA Times article / Advertising in Wikipedia

Thu Mar 13 04:38:22 UTC 2008

--- Mike Godwin <mgodwin at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> 
> Birgitte writes:
> 
> >> Can you remind me again what sources we *do*
> trust
> >> altogether for
> >> their objectivity?
> >
> >
> > Consumer Reports?
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Reports
> 
> Hey, I've actually represented Consumers Union,
> which publishes  
> Consumer Reports!  I love my friends there, but I'm
> still traumatized  
> by the issue in which they rated the IBM PCjr (an
> ill-fated, hobbled  
> machine) over the Apple //c (all the functionality
> of a fitted out  
> Apple //e, but portable!).  I'm not entirely sure
> the review was all  
> that objective.
> 
> 
> --Mike
> 

They certainly have gotten things wrong over the
years.  There have been poorly designed tests, poor
executed tests, math errors, and patently stupid
preferences of certain criteria in the rankings (do
read the full review and not just the rank number). 
But biased?  That is quite a stretch. 

Do I entirely trust that I will agree that an item
ranked #1 is better than on ranked #4? No.  Do I
entirely trust the Consumer's Union is objective? Yes.

Birgitte SB

(Who consults CR before spending more than $100)

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