Ask John: Why is the AnimeNation News Page Biased to AN Entertainment?

Question:
Why do you post reviews of AnimeNation’s acquired titles in your news section? That seems more appropriote to go in the forums as it is not really newsworthy. Or if you deem it news, then perhaps link to reviews of other anime as well. Also the reviews are always positive. I would like to see a contrasting review of someone that does not like it, so I can see 2 different viewpoints.

Answer:
As many critics have argued elsewhere, there’s no such thing as an unbiased news source. Some news sources are more objective than others, but as long as news is reported by humans, it will be affected and colored by human attitudes, priorities, and agendas. The AnimeNation staff takes a great deal of pride in publishing the most reliable and relevant anime news available on the web. That may be a bold statement, but we are willing to defend it as an accurate statement. The AnimeNation News Page, however, is also a service offered by the AnimeNation specialty retailer. The AnimeNation News Page is composed and maintained by a former English teacher with graduate level training in journalism, so the AnimeNation News Page upholds certain standards of professional journalistic integrity, but the AnimeNation News Page has never implied nor claimed to be objective. There should be no debate over conflict of interest because the AnimeNation News Page is obviously controlled by and interested in promoting the interests of the AnimeNation retail business.

The AnimeNation News Page makes every possible effort to educate and inform consumers and anime fans, but also serve its own ends by linking to reviews of AN Entertainment DVD releases. Visitors to the AnimeNation News Page are under no obligation to read any articles or reviews linked from the AnimeNation News Page, nor is the AnimeNation News Page under any obligation to link to any particular review. We link to reviews of AN Entertainment releases because such links may be beneficial to AnimeNation, and because we believe such links are a service to the fan community because they educate and enlighten anime fans. The majority of reviews of AN Entertainment DVDs linked through the AnimeNation News Page are positive simply because the majority of reviews of AN Entertainment DVDs are positive. However, when DVD Vision Japan published less than positive reviews of Risky Safety DVD volumes 2 & 3, the AnimeNation News Page reported those reviews. When Anime Jump published a negative review of Miami Guns, the AnimeNation News Page did link to that review.

It’s not our intention to present a rose-colored, one-sided perspective of AN Entertainment DVD releases, but it is our intention and right to highlight public discussion of our DVD releases. Furthermore, we’re proud to say that the fact that the majority of reviews of AN Entertainment DVD releases are positive is simply due to AN Entertainment releasing praiseworthy anime DVDs- not because of any journalistic impropriety or unethical manipulation.