Questioning analysis

Sun's John Clingan questions the reliability of industry analysts:

And are analysts completely on the level? There are those analysts who get paid to make a point. Companies pay analysts to make a point in their favor. Not coming to that conclusion means they will no longer be of value. Now, of course, coming to that point may be the 100% correct, and then the competition debunks it with their own analysis from another company (analyst shopping) who makes a 100% accurate counter point (ah, the chaos of statistics). I associate a .5 probability with this point so i have plausible deniability. How did I come up with .5? SWAG, man, SWAG. But at least I disclosed how I came about it.

IMHO, questioning these people is a good idea...