Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Audiophilander (A) on January 01, 2006 at 02:26:16

In Reply to: What matters it to you whether I have or haven't? I have not issued an opinion... posted by clarkjohnsen on December 31, 2005 at 12:09:02:

Technically, you're correct; you haven't issued an opinion, but I have some problems with it from an ethical standpoint.

What you've done amounts to endorsing a second hand opinion without having any direct knowledge of your own. In a court of law that would probably be called heresay evidence and ruled inadmissable. Here, expressing an uninformed opinion through posting someone else's review may just be blowing smoke, and viewed as okay or par for the coarse, but I think of it as deceitful.

Why, you might ask?

Because failure to inform folks whether YOU have seen the film that you're posting a critical review about still leaves the misimpression that you've seen the film in question; it's this guilt of omission that I find most egregious, and it amounts to weaseling, IMHO.

You probably don't see it this way, and you're certainly entitled to that viewpoint, but I think that others probably will see where I'm coming from on this point. I'm calling you on this, as I've done occasionally before, not to be an arsehole, but because I think that it's patently unfair to rely on a surrogate critic's viewpoint to trash a film you haven't seen yourself.

AuPh