"Do you think consumer reports is really "objective"?"

Consumer Reports is easily the most objective product rating magazine (or website) out there.

We cannot know for sure whether or not they accept bribes or favors from corporations, but they have a sterling reputation, and further, don’t mind trashing a product when they feel it is warranted. Lastly, and this is a big thing for me, they admit it when they make a mistake and apologize. I let my subscription lapse a few months ago (I can use the online version when I want), but I just got a card from them announcing they had made a mistake in testing a product (I don’t remember which.) I was impressed that they were not content with printing a little "erratum" note in the magazine, but they made a separate mailing to people who are not even current subscribers to admit the mistake. It must have cost lots of money.

Further, every other product rating magazine does get favors from manufacturers, in the form of advertising. Most magazines have to be very careful to avoid offending their advertisers, and I know of one case where a magazine actually died because it rated a few too many products harshly.

Further, Consumer Reports is not owned by a giant media conglomerate which is trying to protect other parts of its business. (When a music magazine gives a rave review to some band which is all the buzz, you have to ask which label the band is recording with, and who owns that label, and what is the connection to the magazine.) Consumer Reports is owned by a non-profit cooperative which all subscribers belong to. As you know every subscriber can vote for the board of directors, and can even run for a position if they are so inclined.

Lastly, the content of their reports seems very objective, and not at all biased toward any particular manufacturor. More than once I have read them give a negative review to a product from a company which they remark, had previously gotten good reviews. Further, they only report on objectively measurable criteria. They never discuss the appearance of a car, for example.

I might add that Consumer Reports has less influence on the buying habits of the public than you might think. Most people buy stuff on the basis of marketing. About ten years ago I was part of a cable company brokerage (that bought and sold cable companies). When Consumer Reports ran an article stating that satellite was a better value, the word from the insiders was that they didn't expect it to have a measurable impact, since a tiny fraction of cable subscribers read, or had even heard of, Consumer Reports.

Every other rating system, magazine, system, poll, etc accepts a series of commercials. CR Doesn't, so I accept their ratings.

To my knowledgethe only time CRs been hit with a significant scandal is last year when they were accused by the virus companies of improperly testing virus ware and spyware.

You can read about it here
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/consumer-reports-testing-scandal-its_25.html

So, they were busted by the Geek Squad.

They did publish regarding Car seats and then withdrew it - but I think that shows their objectivity.

No, I consider them objective.

Consumer Reports has been around for a long time and don't accept money from anyone on the product side of things (though they do take donations from individuals).  But people are people and they have biases that may not be related to money.  For example, CR places more weight on "price" than others might, and perhaps put too little weight on "style" than others might.  But for the quality rankings, they rely almost entirely on the surveys they do of product purchases.

I've read Consumer Reports for years. They seem to try hard to be objective. They send people out to actually buy the items that they test. They won't accept any advertising and they won't accept free things to test. They actually buy the cars that they test. Maybe the reason that Sears and Kenmore items are highly rated is because the products are actually good and so are the prices. I've had many Kenmore appliances and been happy with them all.

Maybe certain products are tested more often than others, so that would be subjective.  However, I believe that overall, "Consumer Reports" does follow and give tested results that are as reliable as any other, of its type.  It is still considered a primary resource for media newscasts, etc., so we have been led to believe that they are expert - and, they are as much as any government or consumer sites.

There are so many "Consumer Reports" out there - My personal favorite is the online webcasts - Go to: http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/