Delirium wrote:
It would be somewhat more effective if we didn't
accuse everyone of
acting in bad faith and advertising, as well. Nearly *every* article
I've created on a company, none of which I've been personally involved
with at all, and all of which are fairly large companies whose articles
I've referenced to third-party print sources, has been tagged with
something or other suggesting it be deleted. This sort of resistance to
having articles on companies is one reason, I suspect, that our coverage
of the area is so embarrassingly bad.
It could be helped by the new-page patrollers being a little more
discerning and looking specifically for crappy, unreferenced,
promotional type articles on companies, rather than just tagging every
article on a company indiscriminately.
It seems that those interested in a "bright line" are more interested in
quick fixes than real solution about how to deal with companies.
They've taken their anti-corporate biases and admittedly bad experiences
with the advertising industry, and blown them out of all proportion into
a prejudicial view that anything from corporations is evil. What real
experience have these critics ever had with corporations? Do they ever
read the financial pages of the newspaper? Have they ever looked at the
public reports which these companies are legally required to produce?
When your only exposure to a company is its advertising campaigns you
are bound to have a very distorted view of the company. There has to be
more to our treatment of companies than ivory-tower idealism. The lowly
cubicle jockey writing about his company is unlikely to have his
personal fortunes thereby advanced, and the CEO has better things to do
with his time.
Strong biased attitudes on either side of the fence help to perpetrate
myths about companies. Maybe a food product company understates the
amount of salt in its product contrary to objective consumer testing.
We do better to highlight such discrepancies (with verifiable sources
from both sides) than to dwell on fatuous arguments to the effect that a
company is not notable if we only have its side of the story. If some
statement is company propaganda we identify it as such, and welcome
alternative views instead of pretending that by suppressing information
we are doing a great service to neutrality.
Those blinded by their own bright lines need to stop deceiving themselves.
Ec