10-Mar-2020, 20:45
I don't think bias is a problem here. I expect a manufacturer to be biassed because I expect them to have faith in their own products and to think that their own products do whatever it is they're intended to do in the best way possible. Why would you want to buy a product from a manufacturer who's selling products that they think are doing things in a worse or inferior way to what the competing products do? A manufacturer who doesn't believe he's making a great product that offers something better than what their competitors offer is a manufacturer who's making a product that you probably want to pass over for something from one of the competitors.
I also once read a comment about the difference between bias and prejudice. It said that with bias, all things being equal you will go the way your bias inclines you to go but with prejudice you always go the way your prejudice inclines you to go regardless of whether all things are equal or not. Bias comes as part of the package when you have preferences, especially strong preferences, but prejudice is something else. I don't have any problem with Paul McGowan having a biassed view on the Phantom.
What I think is the problem here is the way the comments were made. First he starts off wearing a silly mask, then he takes the mask off and says he doesn't like to comment on competitors but…, then he comments and damns with faint praise, and then puts the mask on again. It's the mask and the whole process of how he went about making his comments that turns me off. He's making a show of making his comments, he's turning them from being commentary to something else, to ridicule. He's got as much right as any other reviewer or person making a comment to say that he doesn't like the approach the product's manufacturer took and to say that he would prefer a different approach. He didn't have to dress up his comments in the way that he did in order to make them so why put on that show? It's because he wants to make his viewers laugh at the idea of another company doing something different and that's not simply making a biassed comment, that's holding another company up to ridicule in a totally unnecessary way. That's simply being nasty.
I also once read a comment about the difference between bias and prejudice. It said that with bias, all things being equal you will go the way your bias inclines you to go but with prejudice you always go the way your prejudice inclines you to go regardless of whether all things are equal or not. Bias comes as part of the package when you have preferences, especially strong preferences, but prejudice is something else. I don't have any problem with Paul McGowan having a biassed view on the Phantom.
What I think is the problem here is the way the comments were made. First he starts off wearing a silly mask, then he takes the mask off and says he doesn't like to comment on competitors but…, then he comments and damns with faint praise, and then puts the mask on again. It's the mask and the whole process of how he went about making his comments that turns me off. He's making a show of making his comments, he's turning them from being commentary to something else, to ridicule. He's got as much right as any other reviewer or person making a comment to say that he doesn't like the approach the product's manufacturer took and to say that he would prefer a different approach. He didn't have to dress up his comments in the way that he did in order to make them so why put on that show? It's because he wants to make his viewers laugh at the idea of another company doing something different and that's not simply making a biassed comment, that's holding another company up to ridicule in a totally unnecessary way. That's simply being nasty.
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