[Audio Empire]

On Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:50:49 -0700, C. Leeds wrote
(in article ):

On 3/27/2011 10:43 AM, Audio Empire wrote:

the hyperbole is a journalistic "device" and the
universal WE doesn't mean ANYTHING except as an opening line. It's not
meant
to be taken literally...

Please explain how, as a journalist, you use this "device" of hyperbole.
Please explain how a reader is to distinguish your hyperbole from other
statements you expect us to accept as factual.

Did you employ this hyperbolic "device" when you worked as an equipment
reviewer?


I'm surprised that I have to explain these things to someone who''s
ostensibly, an adult.

Look, here's an analogy.

Someone is going to write a criticism of something Congress has done with
which he doesn't agree. He might open his criticism with:

"We all know that Congress has the best interests of the American people at
heart, but in its last session it passed a law......"

First of all, we all DON'T know that Congress has the best interests of the
American people at heart. The person writing this knows that's the case, the
persons reading it knows that's the case . We certainly hope it's true, and
many people even assume it's true, but others suspect it's not and some are
even convinced that it's not true. But it establishes a "community" of the
writer and the reader for the duration of the written piece. It becomes a
"peg", if you will, for the writer to hang his arguments from.

In my case, I used a similar device based on the fact that MOST audiophiles
DO think that new stuff is better than old. Hell, much of the business model
of home audio is based upon the audiophile striving to "upgrade" his
components to the latest and the greatest. The reality is that while many
audiophiles do not think that newer stuff is necessarily better than older
stuff, the vast majority probably do. But, by reminding the reader of this
widely held wisdom, I create a literary "peg" to hang my anecdote on.

That's all I'm going to say on the subject, My suggestion, which I will now
reiterate, is that if you don't like what or how I write, don't read what I
write. Believe me, it won't insult me in the least if you skip my meager
contributions to this august body. 8^)

Oh, yes, and one more thing. I STILL work as an equipment reviewer and I've
been with the same publication for more than 16 years.