An unbiased opinion is hard to find

I read a couple of interesting articles recently and they are well worth looking at because they highlight a very strange phenomenon. They are examples of the way some people see bias where none exists and the weird way some people interpret events. These things are often found in the constant battle between Microsoft and Apple, but it is not limited to these two companies. This website is concerned with technology, but the way people see bias in things extends to all areas, such as politics, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and so on. Whether you are a Windows, Apple, or Linux fan, you should read these articles with a fresh eye and be on your guard for biased reporting.

There is a great article at Tom's Hardware called Why Apple fans hate technology reporters and it describes how Walt Mossberg reviewed the iMac and praised it. However, he got lots of highly critical emails from Mac fans of all people, asking what he had against Macs. They saw his article as strongly anti-Apple when in fact he loved the machine. Mossberg has even coined a term for the effect. "I call it the Doctrine of Insufficient Adulation."

The article also describes research carried out presenting people with a news story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how supporters of each side saw bias, but the exact opposite bias in the same story. People neutral to the conflict saw no bias in it. I won't go into further details because you can read the article yourself. It's interesting.

The other example comes from the MacDailyNews website The Microsoft Tax: McAfee correctly identifies Windows as malware; Macintosh unaffected. The site comments on news stories around the web and it saw an article on Yahoo! News titled McAfee antivirus program goes berserk, freezes PCs. This tells how an update to McAfee's anti virus software stopped Windows PCs from working because it  wrongly thought an operating system file was a virus. This was McAfee's fault and it had nothing to do with Windows or Microsoft, yet MacDailyNews said "MacDailyNews Take: If vehicle-makers sold products as unreliable as Microsoft, they'd be sued into oblivion. Yet, with Microsoft products, total failure in critical situations is not only immediately absolved, it's expected." Why blame Microsoft? It wasn't a Microsoft product that caused the problem.

McAfee doesn't have any Mac anti virus products, but Symantec does. Suppose an update for Norton AntiVirus stopped OS X from starting because it misidentified an operating system component. Would MacDailyNews criticise Apple or creating such a shoddy OS? I think not.

Of course, Apple fanatics love this Microsoft and Windows bashing. It's not limited to Microsoft though and it extends to all non-Apple products. As someone who tries to be unbiased, it is very irritating seeing so much biased opinion on the web. I have a Windows PC, Mac, Linux PC, iPod Touch, Blackberry and more, so hopefully I can see things from all angles. Be on your guard for biased opinions.