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RE: Interesting post from another forum

This I think is key:


"Second, and more important, anyone who specializes in reviewing a particular type of product becomes a part of that industry. After a while, they identify less with average consumers than with their 'peers' - in the business they cover. This 'camaraderie' is a big source of subtle bias. Gifts of gear may factor into it, but it's the absorption of identity that really matters. Publications can counter this effect by encouraging tough review standards - but most don't."

When JGH started Stereophile the magazine identified with the consumer of High Fi equipment. Now it identifies with the industry. What's good for the industry is good for Stereophile and TAS, the last two of the great alternative audio magazines. What helps the industry sell product, gives the magazines, no longer alternative magazines but mainline ones, more product to review, more advertising, more shows to cover, more sales for what appears to be a shrinking industry. This leaves out the incestuous nature of the industry, where one may be a reviewer today and next week working for a manufacturer or importer. Dave Wilson, Bascomb King and Steven Mejias are examples of the nature of the industry. It is hard to give a bad review to a friends product, it is hard to not go along with a product that make most other products of it's nature obsolete.

I'm not impugning anyone's ethics. The reviewer believes what he is writing, though he may hype it a bit. But then he wants to believe the truth, it gives him something new to write about, to gush about, to help the industry that he identifies with. It's a normal path for a magazine to follow. I don't believe anyone is dishonest, it is just a mindset that develops.





When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it. ~ Bernard Bailey

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