Abusing ones position

[Shutpa]

Listening to the radio, I was surprised to hear the presenter name and shame the manufacture of a product that he, the presenter. had had problems with. I have the same product but have never had problems with it. Given that his comments could possibly deter would-be purchasers, do you think that this was an abuse of the presenters position? I am well aware that this sort of thing happens on this forum but feel that this is one of the right places to air ones grievances.

 

[JohnD]

have you complained to the radio station yet?

 

[billyo]

if the product was made in the uk it will never get praise on tv, good news is no news

 

[Shutpa]

if the product was made in the uk it will never get praise on tv, good news is no news

++

UK firm but made in Malaysia!

 

[tim west]

Listening to the radio I was surprised to hear the presenter name and shame the manufacture of a product that he, the presenter. had had problems with. I have the same product but have never had problems with it. Given that his comments could possibly deter would-be purchasers, do you think that this was an abuse of the presenters position? I am well aware that this sort of thing happens on this forum but feel that this is one of the right places to air ones grievances.

Happens all the time on Top Gear!

 

[Steve]

Never heard of Radio I, but there is a station called Radio 1 that transmits on 98.9fm.

I listen to Galaxy 105 Yorkshire, and they are always slating products and services and naming shops etc.

 

[Space cat]

Given that his comments could possibly deter would-be purchasers, do you think that this was an abuse of the presenters position?

Yes it was. It's the reverse of that dreadful kind of advertizing where the presenter interrupts the show to extoll the virtues of the sponsor's product. That's something that, thankfully, we don't appear to have in the UK. We don't want its opposite either. The only exceptions would be a programme specifically about product reliability, eg a radio version of Watchdog, or something that was obviously a spoof like Top Gear.

This forum is a bit different. I'm not sure how much product slagging the moderators will tolerate but, even if they don't care, we have peer review. If a product is wrongly slagged off it won't be long before somebody else springs to its defence.

 

[Steve]

I dont think he was abusing his position. I hear it a lot on air, DJs telling of bad experiences of products or services. As long as its all true, theres no harm in it. On the radio too, people have a lot of choice, and choose a station they can relate to, and interact with, therefore theres unlikely to be any comeback when a DJ does slate a product, as most listeners will relate to it.

 

[anobium]

I forget which car it was the J Clarkson slagged off on Top Gear, but even he admitted that it made no difference to the sales, if anything they sold more.
Whats that saying, "theres no such thing as bad publicity"

 

[tim west]

Years ago he slagged off a car that I owned just because it was at the cheap end of the price scale that seemed to influence his decision, he said it was unreliable amongst other derogatory things ,none of which proved true. his comments luckily didnt put off people buying from a new manufacturer trying to break into the uk executive car sales market.

 

[JohnD]

I think you can use Jeremy as a sure guide to a wise choice. just see what he says and...

 

[tim west]

Do the reverse?

 

[Steve]

I saw an old top gear the other day, they had a photo of the new astra (pre-release) and were saying how good it looked, and that they thought vauxhall would never release it How wrong they were! The new astra is the exact photo they were sent!

Then in a later programme, they (Hammond) smashed up a prototype new Astra with a tractor trailer