Re: Poll finds widespread support for Microsoft

[stan johnson <sjohnson@gwi.net>]

** Reply to note from mstone@vc.net Sat, 9 Jan 1999 13:30:46 -0500 
> Conducting a survey, publishing a web site and issuing a press 
> release does not credibility make -- that should still take time and 
> the establishment of a track record. If only the press would keep 
> this simple fact in mind, the signal to noise ratio would be much 
> more tolerable. 
 
This assumes a fact not in evidence: that the press in general intends   
to convey signal, not noise. IOW, that they *want* to report actual   
facts as opposed to PR. It is a very common habit: to attribute failure   
of some institution, here the press, to do what is perceived as the   
appropriate thing to absent-minded inattention, rather than deliberate   
obfuscation and misdirection. I personally favor the latter explanation,   
believing that surely so many people can't be *that* stupid!

-- 
Stan Johnson    TeamOS/2
sjohnson@gwi.net