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Re: If you really want to see magazines whoring themselves out

Posted by John Atkinson on March 1, 2007 at 09:05:32:
>this ethics thing which currently seems to be being pushed by
>Stereophile is going to be double-edged as demonstrated by the avid
>audiophile bjh in a thread or two below.

Actually, I think "bjh" has way too much time on his hands, judging
by the fact that he has been going through my published equipment
lists to compare them with what I have posted on the Asylum, looking
for discrepancies.

>Since it is inconceivable over the decades that he has not picked up
>a reasonable understanding of sound, sound perception and audio
>equipment...

Yes. I believe so.

>this involves a fair degree of misdirection in support of what is
>commercially lucrative.

No.

>A reasoned debate on the advantages/disadvantages of doing this for
>audiophiles and the audiophile industry would be interesting but
>obviously wholly impractical in public. However, the point is that
>he has demonstrated that Sunday school black and white ethics do not
>apply but what is good for the health of his magazine.

I believe that the two are not mutually incompatible.

>So would it be good for the health of the largest mainstream
>magazine to use the content as part of an individual manufacturers
>advertising campaign? Of course not. It could be commercial suicide
>unless all the other audiophile publications did likewise and,
>possibly, not even then because it would lose a lot of
>status/goodwill among audiophiles when it inevitably came out. Ditto
>taking direct payments for reviews and similar which crops up quite
>regularly.

It appears that what you are saying is that if I were to behave
unethically, as did the unnamed reviewer for a magazine that is not
Stereophile, I should be condemned. But if I do behave ethically, that
is also to be condemned, because my motives for behaving ethically
are, according to you, themselves unethical.

>But can you sell this as ethics to audiophiles?

Obviously I can't sell it to you "Andy19191." But that does beg the
question, of course: were you kicked in the head by a horse as a child
or did that happene later in life?

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile