I subscribe to Consumer Reports (both print and online), and generally enjoy the magazine. So much so that I've based a lot of purchasing decisions upon their evaluations. Generally I've been very pleased with their advice, apart from their Editor's Choice Sony bookshelf speakers a while back: the speakers are terrible, and either their manufacturing is of poor quality yielding such variations, or the CR reviewer was largely deaf.

Their marketing department isn't quite as credible.

I just received a promotional email from them which starts off with "It's a well-known fact that Consumer Reports provides expert advice and unbiased information and Ratings". I don't contest the statement, but I find it humorous that they resort to the standard sales technique of stating something as a "well-known fact", relying upon stated social proof to pound the point home. This is a standard tactic of sleazy dealers that are trying to negate the target's scam detection.

To top off the paradox of the Consumer defender using such a dubious tactic, they end off the email with the statement "So, don't wait. Click here to subscribe today! You and your family's health could depend upon it." Classy.

Of course this isn't entirely unexpected, as their online subscriptions rely upon the enormously dubious automatic renewals, which I discovered to my sadness recently (after using their online site a total of once in the year).