[Anthym]

And can somebody please trace Mr. D. Adarshand tell him that he can actually go across and buy most of these cars. It hurts to see people been given wrong advice this way especially about cars.

[xPK]

Originally Posted by ashthedivx

Clearly looks like a printing mistake, replace 2009 by 2008 and suddenly things will start looking better

Yea.
Looks like the news was supposed to be printed in 18th Feb 2008's paper.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by ak916

of late, I see that there is more than just a tinge of bias.

Originally Posted by hrag

'The Hindu' and lack of bias? You've got to be kidding.

Looks like the 'lack of bias' part is not fully correct. Could you guys please tell me to whom the daily is biased. Atleast I could not detect any bias and the editorials come out as very impartial and erudite.

Originally Posted by ballkey

LOL is all I can say.. And I thought cynicism was rising in this country...

While others were having an issue with only the 'bias' part, you seem to be of the opinion that all of it is wrong. Hmm.
My opinion was relative to the other options available. In Chennai, the other options are the Indian Express, DC & TOI. While the last 2 are more trash and tabloid-esque than being a newspaper, the IE has its own set of faults. Anyway, the thread was about a column in the said newspaper and not about the newspaper itself.

Originally Posted by Mpower

You might want to write to the editor and point out this nonsense.

Will try to do this.

[esteem_lover]

SB, only the vintage section is what I look forward to. The what car questions are the usual Q&A, there is no value in that.

[ak916]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Looks like the 'lack of bias' part is not fully correct. Could you guys please tell me to whom the daily is biased. Atleast I could not detect any bias and the editorials come out as very impartial and erudite.

While others were having an issue with only the 'bias' part, you seem to be of the opinion that all of it is wrong. Hmm.
My opinion was relative to the other options available. In Chennai, the other options are the Indian Express, DC & TOI. While the last 2 are more trash and tabloid-esque than being a newspaper, the IE has its own set of faults. Anyway, the thread was about a column in the said newspaper and not about the newspaper itself.
Will try to do this.

Oh there is bias... ummm.. how do I say this? Leave that aside, we shudnt be talking about that on this forum.

I just remembered... In school, we used to read about the name "earth" being a misnomer for our planet, due to the fact that 3/4th of its surface is water.

[vasudeva]

Perhaps a similar question was asked last year (in 2008), and the advisor simply cut and paste his earlier advice. The blooper may have been done by the advisor or his editor who simply replaced 2008 with 2009. Expect the same in 2010 with 2009 being replaced by 2010!!!

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

I guess no one at the hindu reads team bhp. there's been a repeat performance in the TVM edition!

The Hindu : Metro Plus Thiruvananthapuram / Wheels : Virtual Mechanic

And no prize for guessing unlike other papers why web edition of Hindu does not have any forum for reader comments , A nice way to control brickbats

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Looks like the 'lack of bias' part is not fully correct. Could you guys please tell me to whom the daily is biased. Atleast I could not detect any bias and the editorials come out as very impartial and erudite.

My previous post you may get some hint with in parameters of T-BHP

[sgmuser]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Looks like the 'lack of bias' part is not fully correct. Could you guys please tell me to whom the daily is biased. Atleast I could not detect any bias and the editorials come out as very impartial and erudite.

I need to answer you, eventhough, this is not the place for that.

Hmmm, I have been reading (even today morning) hindu for the last 20 years! First thing i do everyday morning after my tea is browsing hindu site. Kind of addiction, rather than anything else. One of my Dr friend told me two days, the quality of hindu gone down a lot, i believe him because he is reading it for almost 40 years! I know for sure they are biased esp towards anything sensitive to 'their' community. Chennaites know this best.

But regarding their automobile domain knowledge they are big ZERO. I will surely put my wallet in tbhpian's knowledge than with hindu.

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Looks like the 'lack of bias' part is not fully correct. Could you guys please tell me to whom the daily is biased. Atleast I could not detect any bias and the editorials come out as very impartial and erudite.

Could be that each one of us has different ideologies and opinions, and what we like, we consider impartial. Of course, Hindu is a well-written newspaper. However, I have detected a lot of let me say `anti-Hindu' bias in both Hindu and Frontline. This was till at least 3-4 years back, when as a result, I stopped reading these online and offline. Anyone is free to have a different opinion, but I have also seen clearly `different facts' in Hindu to justify a preferred opinion. This holds true for most newspapers and so buyers beware, and God has given us the wisdom and knowledge to see through.

[ballkey]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

While others were having an issue with only the 'bias' part, you seem to be of the opinion that all of it is wrong. Hmm.
My opinion was relative to the other options available. In Chennai, the other options are the Indian Express, DC & TOI. While the last 2 are more trash and tabloid-esque than being a newspaper, the IE has its own set of faults. Anyway, the thread was about a column in the said newspaper and not about the newspaper itself.
Will try to do this.

I would give them this - they are as error-free, un-biased as any other newspaper in the market. They have skilled writers too; no doubt about that. That makes them all the more dangerous; the middle-class loves to lap up intellectual looking, flowery prose. This makes it all the more easier to push their agenda.

I don't want to come across as a snob here; I just think it would be better off if most people started questioning things, consult multiple sources of information, including those "trash" newspapers, and then form an opinion. </end-offtopic-rant>

[gaurav911]

Auto experts in these special supplements of newspapers are a big fake. They take the moolah from the news papers and publish their bias terming it as "expert opinion".
The article above is embaressing for the Hindu. I guess the auto expert above was asked the query sometime around Jun/July 2008 and the paper has ended up publishing the response now

Originally Posted by MindSpeeDs

Quite a few newbies on T-BHP would know more than even some senior bhpians. Being a newbie actually doesn't make them less knowledgable!
Yeah, the so called experts (not only auto but also various other columns) are not really experts.

I second that. A newbie here is no sign that he is less knowledgable or passionate about cars!

[Edsel Rulez!]

Originally Posted by amitk26

no prize for guessing unlike other papers why web edition of Hindu does not have any forum for reader comments. A nice way to control brickbats

On the other hand, the print edition of the Hindu does have a section (usually found in the bottom left corner, opposite the edit page) that gives details of errors that readers notice and send in. We could email them and see if they carry an appropriate corrigendum.

[VSG12777]

Originally Posted by finneyp

The Auto supplement in Hindu is a big joke!
I just see the pics & totally ignore the crap written there.

I bet a Newbie at T-BHP knows much more than the so called Auto expert @ The Hindu.

How true. I felt the same way too.

Originally Posted by Zappo

There is a more plausible reason for such errors. The specialized columns like the ones on cars (wines, furnishings etc) are outsourced. They need to pay the person on an agreed basis.

Obviously they try to think of ways to avoid these. And the most common way to achieve that is to ask an intern, maybe a wide eyed girl or a starry eyed joe, to take the questions and select those for which they already have similar questions and their answers in their repository. The girl who knows zilch about such stuff just relies on her english to pick the similarity.

Rest you can guess . While it works in most cases here it boomeranged. So the last year's data got rehashed as this years. What is more atrocious is that it was not proof read for correctness, maybe because the editor thought its all stock reply which has been proof read in the past.

Very much possible Zappo !!

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Among the English dailies in India, 'The Hindu' is considered top-notch in terms of quality, content, error-free reporting, lack of bias, newsprint, lack of Page3 content etc. IMO it is the best English newspaper in India and this is after sampling various newspapers available in different parts of India.

So every Wednesday, I do not miss the 'Metro Plus' supplement which has 2 pages dedicated to cars - new models, vintage and ofcourse the 'Virtual Mechanic' which can be called the print equivalent of our own "What car?" section.

After reading the the Virtual Mechanic section, to say I was shocked would be an understatement. I first checked the date of the newspaper, thinking that maybe I am reading an old paper. But no, it was a supplement dated 18-Feb-2009.

The Corolla Altis has been launched only few months ago. So I wondered how a new one is expected just 7 months later. I ignored this bit thinking that the Altis was anyway a minor makeover. So maybe Toyota will bring in a fresh new Corolla, though I don't remember reading anything about this on tbhp.

But then he goes on to say that the Linea is also expected in Sep 2009. We have reams of pages detailing Linea test-drives on the forum and people have booked it and some have even brought it home. And these guys are telling the reader to wait for it.

And then the article says that VW Jetta is expected in July 2009. I had read about the Jetta being already in the market, but since I am not much interested in 10lakh+ cars, I was not too sure. So checked the VW site online and yes, they have the Jetta on sale.

I just can't believe that 'The Hindu' had this on their pages.

SB, The Hindu's standard is not like what it was before. It's gone down a lot. We've been buying this newspaper since 1993 (when we came back to Chennai from Singapore) and nowadays, I find many spelling mistakes and other grammatical errors etc. It's frustrating to say the least.

Originally Posted by icar

The Hindu group tied up with Autocar India.
Car reviewed / Q&A in 'Metro Plus' had published in Autocar India magazine. I think the editor dig in old Q & A and published

There goes. I thought as much. The car reviews / road tests were looking very familiar. So that's where these Hindu guys are getting them from

Originally Posted by hrag

Anyway, the auto sections are taken from Autocar India under license / syndication / whatever. Whether they use the latest edition or something a few months old is anybody's guess.

Yup. I don't think they take the material from the latest editions always. Some of them are older stuff.

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

Re-check it SupremeBaleno - that piece was probably in the humour section. See the dateline on the article - it will show 1 April.

Do not trust your eyes - bo not believe anything you read, until you have checked it out on TBHP!

Cheers,

Good one there !!

Originally Posted by greenhorn

I guess no one at the hindu reads team bhp. there's been a repeat performance in the TVM edition!

The Hindu : Metro Plus Thiruvananthapuram / Wheels : Virtual Mechanic

What nutheads these guys are !! How could they repeat the same crap in another city's edition too ?

Warm regards,
Venkat

[vnabhi]

SB, that is a revealing write-up from you indeed. I too am shocked that a newspaper with the stature of Hindu could fall into such abyssmal depths!

I think team-bhp should offer an orientation course to all newspapers and auto-magazines, and make some money out of it. Of course, discounts could be offered if Shireen Bhan or some lookalikes are among the participants . I don't mind volunteering my services in such a case.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by ballkey

I don't want to come across as a snob here; I just think it would be better off if most people started questioning things, consult multiple sources of information, including those "trash" newspapers, and then form an opinion.

Actually I subscribe to the Deccan Chronicle at home, one of the dailies that I called trash. At work we subscribe to The Hindu and TOI, which I glance through during lunch or after-work. And I buy the Indian Express on Sundays - love their Sunday supplements. So I guess I have a comparitive view.

Anyway, since this thread is not really about The Hindu, but about a particular column in it, I guess we would be going way OT if we start discussing the Hindu's flaws and +ves.

Like some mentioned, I guess it might have been an error due to cut-and-paste and which inadvertently escaped scrutiny. But still, a blot on the paper.