F1 Fanatic

People need to learn the difference between bias and opinion. To me an opinion consists of a well argued set of statements. Bias is the opposite. It’s supporting or attacking a subject for the sake of it. That doens’t mean everyone should have the same opinion (be it political, philosophical or F1-related).

Screaming bias at every occasion is in itself a form of bias towards this site. People see ‘.co.uk’ and naturally assume that the majority of visitors is British and therefor immediately jump to the conclusion that Keith must be catering towards said audience (or be part of the presumed audience). I believe that both the premise and the conclusion of such an argument are flawed.

HAHA! Why does Joe Saward think Luizzi is so good. I will never know.

@Tommy

I’d say the reason that he thinks Liuzzi is good is twofold. Firstly that Liuzzi dominated the lower categories (as much as Hamilton or Hulkenberg did). The second is that Liuzzi has been badly treated for his F1 career. He’s never really been given much opportunity – with the exception of this year. On the face of it, Liuzzi didn’t do that well, but he also didn’t do as badly as his critics suggest.

I’m unsure really as to how good he is.

So I’m going to cheaply repost what I posted in another thread, but it fits, so: many people have taken to automatically talking about ‘bias’ when what they mean is ‘different opinion’. And I don’t necessarily mean the whole British bias stuff – go through the site and see how many time the word is casually thrown around; it’s getting beaten to death! When you have an opinion that’s an opinion, to be biased you have to deliberately skew or omit facts in presenting an argument.

And besides, most people who scream ‘bias’ are just dissatisfied with someone else’s opinion and it’s so much easier to throw dirt around than to actually come up with solid arguments yourself.

If I look at the front page at the moment (28th Jan), there’s six articles on Ferrari and not one of them is critical!!!

Clearly Keith is a blatant Ferrari fanboy.

Or maybe, accusations of bias are bollocks.

Keep up the good work Keith!

I’m sure we have some emotional bias towards one or the other, we’re not clinically balanced and unemotional about the topic, but we are passionate, hooked maybe. If not, the site would be better named F1 Clinical Digest, or some such, not F1 Fanatic.

I’m sure bias exhibits my comments from time to time, sometimes strongly. However, when someone accuses me of being biased because I’m British, this is simply, shallow, and based on the assumption that all British people blindly support British teams. One chap recently turned out to be Scottish and accusing the English of bias. Hopefully that same man will find some joy in seeing a Scot on the track again and perhaps lay off the bloody minded presumptions.

Brits, are, in most cases, quite fair an balanced I feel, as a multicultural society and not having a great deal to be proud of these days, but there are elements that are overtly biased and unfair. The press does come up with nonsense to sell papers, and it does turn my stomach very literally when I hear about it. I go out of my way to avoid the British Press tbh, unless its the beeb, or occasionally Sky. I follow some key blogs and if the exhibit the same temperament I like to have, then it’s agreeable to me to keep reading.

Having said that, there are many people from other nations that come out with outrageous bias that takes me back to my early childhood, when kids used to go on about how their dads could fly, and made a million pounds an hour.

All accusations of strong biased based on supposed nationality, are shallow, unfair, and frankly, a waste of our time as the majority of regulars here are knowledgable, appreciative and respectful of the teams, the drivers, and the efforts and pains they go through to make the sport work. Some have quite an incredible knowledge which makes me wonder if they have any time for a rewarding social life.. ;)

I’m certainly not knocking passion for teams, drivers etc, but.. it’s an intelligent sport, with intelligent amateur punditry going on, and the gap in class is evident when someone ruins it all by spouting supposed nonsense like a spoilt child.

I’m sure this is along the general lines of thought for many of us here.. so this is an out pouring of minor frustrations on the subject, and I hope it’s added and enriched the debate a little :)