Buy This Before You Buy That -- Consumer Reports magazine

I work at a radio station, paying frequent visits to the news department. There, I skim through press releases because I find them amusingly biased. For example, it would not be unlikely to find some press release talking about how important their company is and how they continue to serve the community and blah, blah, blah --- all in response to an announced layoff of six hundred people.

After I read these propagandized releases, I then watch the local news and can here portions of the press release word for word. At the end of the news, I see the company provides a service for this station.

Somewhere in this mess, an important bit of news effecting a substantial portion of my community has been compromised so that an advertiser's toes stay unscathed. Somewhere, someone got lazy and indifferent about journalistic integrity. Somewhere in this process, the almighty dollar rose above a sacred responsibility to report the truth.

That is why I strongly suggest buying Consumer Reports before making major purchasing decisions. As it accepts no advertising, CR is not beholden to a "client". It can make corporations angry enough to hire OJ Simpson's legal defense team and still report the vigilantly researched truth about a product's quality.

I enjoy many features in Consumer Reports -- from the letters in the front to product news briefs, recalls and the articles, reports and reviews on everything from RV's to frozen food entrees. I have never purchased a product that was well-rated by CR that failed to provide exactly the level of satisfaction I expected to receive after reading its review.

And I would pay the subscription price for the back page alone -- the feature called "Selling It." On this last page CR presents poorly-written and deceptively-worded advertising with some humorous and onerous results. It often features product down-sizing tricks such as 13 ounces of coffee in a one-pound sized can.

Consumer Reports empowers the consumer to purchase regardless of advertising and sales tactics. It encourages us to look past the hook and to spend our money in a savvy manner. And, because it's a non-profit, your subscription is quasi-tax deductible. Cool.

Consumer Reports can get a little self-righteous. They do take a bit of time to admit if they were wrong or heavy-handed in testing a product. On the other hand, I would rather be told NOT to drive something than to be convinced something like a Ford Pinto was perfectly safe to drive. I would rather err on the side of safety. From what I can tell and from what I have bought, Consumer Reports has never been egregiously wrong. In the case of Ford Motor Company and the Pinto -- failure to admit their flaws proved fatal.