“Quickly. Answer this: Who was the last winner of the Buckeye News Hawk Award? Isn’t it the same WCPO Cincinnati TV reporter who bashes Apple’s iPod for a living? Hmmm. Could be,” Bambi Hambi writes for Mac360.
Hambi writes, I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t WKRP Cincinnati’s colorful Less Nessman win the award a few times? How many?”
“Reporter John ”Don’t Waste Money” Matarese is working hard to win the award this year,” Hambi writes. “He’s already won the coveted Mac360 Jackass of the Week Award.”
Hambi writes, “Back in December of 2005, one of Matarese’s ridiculous reports bashed Apple’s iPods. Tera Patricks, Mac360’s then reigning Queen of Rightly Responses, responded in Typical Tera Fashion™.
Hambi writes, “Today, I received a sassy ‘So There, Bambi!’ email message claiming to be from John of WCPO in Cincinnati.”
“Hey Bambi! Remember me? The “dinosaur” reporter from WKRP in Cincinnati? Guess what? I’m posting a NEW iPod story, even better than my last great one that you guys loved. I know you folks would want to see it. Best of all it comes from Consumer Reports Magazine, so it’s going out to MILLIONS of Americans this month, through their latest issue, and is being broadcast to MORE MILLIONS of people on more than 100 other “dinosaur” TV stations nationwide. Isn’t that great? Enjoy!”
Hambi writes, “What an interesting use of sarcasm from a TV reporter. Uh, John, what’s with all the SHOUTING!!?”
Hambi writes, “JOHN WAS WRITING… uh, sorry. John was writing about his most recent Friday The 13th Psychotic Episode, titled ‘iPOD COMPLAINTS.’ So much to expose, so little time.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “ron” for the heads up.]
We’ve worked in TV stations; many of them. Trust us, most TV reporters have infinitely more problems than any iPod could ever have, regardless of its condition. And Consumer Reports is a joke.
Related articles:
Cincinnati ABC affiliate says ‘don’t waste your money’ on Apple iPod [UPDATED] – December 22, 2005
Consumer Reports does their readership a disservice, says viruses target Apple Macs – December 13, 2005
Consumer Reports dubiously finds 20-percent of Mac users ‘detected’ virus in last two years -UPDATED – August 10, 2005
CR isn’t good at cars either! They don’t have random samples. They’re like an online poll. Entertainment purposes only.
We’ve all seen Cr’s lack of expertise in computers. I remember when I worked at Bicycle shop and someone came in with a consumer reports magazine and didn’t want to buy a certain model because consumer reports said the brakes were too powerful and could throw the rider over the handlebars. Anyone that knows bikes, knows that this is a stupid statement. This was especially crazy, considering that a quarter of the bikes had the same shimano brakes. I’ve seen this same type of technical ignorance in other categories that I’m very familiar with too. So besides the fact that their statistics are useless, their writers are idiots.
c’mon, give the poor schmuck a break. he was lucky enough to get a job on a news station in a large market and now he’s got to produce someting to prove to his editor that he’s actually working and can continue to pull a paycheck. what better way to do that than to knock one of the hottest consumer items on the market? listen, there are basically four types of consumer electronics buyers:
Those who hate iPods…
Those who dont know about iPods…
Those who have iPods…
and Those who want iPods.
the last two in that group are thus far in the majority. most of the people who are in those two groups are between the ages of 12 and 35 and they get most of their tech information from various sources on the internet and friends, not local tv news. his “report” will be buried by sales flyers, prime time tv ads and big colorful signs with youthful silhouettes holding the in demand item and internet banner ads flashing “Win An iPod!”. iPods have been sighted adorning the rich and famous, they are the “it” item of the moment. also consider- Oprah (with a nationwide following) and Bono (worldwide following), go anywhere in the country and mention their name in a group of people and chances are that most of them will have heard of one or the other or both. John Matarese? who’s that? i’d say that his (making quotation marks with fingers) “report” is going to have about the same effect on iPod sales as him pissin’ on a California wildfire.
he’s a hack. and his “report” might stop about 20 technically challenged geezers from buying ‘Pods but that’s about it.
CR doesn’t have an anti-business bias, they have a pro-consumer bias.
If someone can nominate a publication (print or net) whose testing methodology is always the best and whose conclusions are always correct please post it here.
“It wasn’t the real Goofy. It was just some guy in a suit.”
– Herb Tarlek
What Consumer Reports publishes are opinions, and nothing more. Often times, those opinions disagree with each other.
Here’s an example:
A few years back they hated the Ford Taurus. No surprises there, right? Well, the same issue praised the Mercury Sable. The two articles were written by two different people, both working in their auto department at the time.
By the way, for those of you who are unaware, the Mercury Sable is a re-badged Ford Taurus. Essentially they were the same car!
There’s nothing to see here, except another round of FUD.
Cincinnati Cubert, you must be a new guy. Sounds like you really don’t know about WKRP?!
Regarding CU, over 30 years ago they did an embarrassing report on Vespa motorscooters, something that I knew a LOT about. After I found that they knew little about products that they review, I have not been able to trust them since. I may still pick up (not buy) and read pieces of it, but they have never regained credibility with me after that. Further, though I haven’t read anything about Macs recently, their earlier reviews (or lack thereof) of Apple products also hurt them.
Unfounded criticism is the last refuge of writers who have nothing to say.
Alansky, not to be critical, but I suspect that much of the above criticism may be well-founded. Is it necessary for everyone to give their entire background providing the foundation for every opinion they express? Admitedly, many people speak groundlessly. But many others may have a variety of experiences leading them to a certain conclusion.
It is unfortunate that the foundation of your own statement eludes me at the moment.
Sounds good, though.