news: GSM Users Reach 1 Billion

Go ahead and break your arm patting yourself on the back in your failed
attempts to discredit Consumer Reports.

Its millions of readers and subscribers know what to think about
Cingular.

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› See More: news: GSM Users Reach 1 Billion

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Wed, 03 Mar
2004 20:50:19 GMT, "Robert M." <[email protected]> wrote:

>Go ahead and break your arm patting yourself on the back in your failed
>attempts to discredit Consumer Reports.

<http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-09-16-cr_x.htm>

Consumer Reports has become so influential among car shoppers that
some automakers now send preproduction cars to the magazine's test
engineers for suggested changes before the vehicles hit showrooms.

General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler Group - which often score
less favorably than Toyota and Honda in Consumer Reports' ratings -
have sent sometimes-camouflaged vehicles to the magazine's
Connecticut test facility. And they've made changes suggested by
magazine engineers before putting vehicles into mass production.

...

George Hoffer, a Virginia Commonwealth University economist who
studies the auto industry, says for automakers, the early testing "is
a great idea because you may wind up with a better product. But down
the road, Consumer Reports' objectivity may be clouded. If their
input was incorporated in the vehicle, would they be loath to
criticize it? If they weren't incorporated, would they be more likely
to criticize it? Whether they do or don't, it gives the appearance of
impugning their objectivity."

Consumer Reports should consider disclosing to readers that it
critiqued a preproduction version of a vehicle, says Aly Colón,
director of ethics at the Poynter Institute, a training center for
journalists. "It adds clarity. For readers, it gives them more
information that they can process."

...

Isuzu filed a lawsuit seeking $242 million in damages after the
magazine called the 1995 and 1996 Trooper not acceptable and said
Isuzu "should never have allowed these vehicles on the road." In
2000, a jury decided Consumer Reports was not liable but that IT DID
MAKE FALSE STATEMENTS ABOUT THE TROOPER. [emphasis added]


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Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>