Against the wall with design for test

Rick Nelson, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 12/1/2000

I write this in the period leading up to what could be the closest election in decades. I'm speaking, of course, of the readers' selection of the Test & Measurement World Test Product of the Year. The competition among this year's Best in Test candidates is fierce. I urge you to review the candidates' qualifications and then cast your vote online.

Perhaps you're wondering where these candidates come from-are they chosen in a primary election that you somehow missed, or were they chosen by political hacks gathered in a smoke-filled room? No, you didn't miss a primary election; perhaps the image of the smoke-filled room is closer to the mark. Although none of us smoke, we editors of Test & Measurement World do gather in a room to vote for candidates, based on your nominations and on information we've gleaned throughout the year.

This process brings to mind a controversy stirred up in the advent to another, recent election. Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie reported that "I no longer exercise my right to vote. As the final decision-maker on news coverage in the Post, I refuse to decide, even privately, which candidate would make a better president . . . ."

So are we at Test & Measurement World overstepping our proper roles as editors by choosing Best in Test candidates? I don't think so. First, Downie's claim was widely greeted with derision. "Shame on Downie," wrote one reader, who questioned Downie's ability to be an effective editor if he avoided the tough decisions voters face. Adds Michael Kinsley, writing in Slate (November 6), "Journalists are also people, for the most part, and people naturally develop opinions . . . this is not a capacity you can turn off like a switch." Full disclosure, says Kinsley, is the way to let readers calibrate the way in which editors' biases might (unconsciously or not) affect their reporting. To that end, Kinsley listed which presidential candidate each of his staff supported in the November 7 US presidential election.

You can consider the candidates listed on pp. 34-36 of the magazine to be our "full disclosure." If you think we inordinately favor oscilloscopes, or test software, or big-iron ATE, or environmental systems, or microwave instrumentation, then just file away a calibration factor that you can apply to our 2001 coverage. But now it's time to have your say. Please log on to www.tmworld.com/bit and cast your vote. T&MW