Davy Jones, 1945-2012

Sad news, but made sadder by the fact that he and the other three guys were pretty much prisoners to their made-for-TV origins as well as their celebrity status:

The group, which was dubbed the "prefab four" by critics, rebelled against its management in an effort to take control of its musical career.

The move worked to an extent -- band members, who had generally been replaced by session men on Monkees recordings, were allowed to play their own instruments and contribute songs -- but coincided with a decline in the Monkees' popularity. NBC canceled the TV series "The Monkees" after just two seasons, and the band lasted for only one more year after that.

Schadenfreude: Andrew Breitbart

A thoroughly detestable hack, to be sure, but I'm surprised that it was he and not the USS Fatcrack who keeled over first. Breitbart was only 43, but if anyone was in line for a coronary episode (or whatever it was that ultimately killed him - CBS radio only said that it was due to "natural causes" this morning, which isn't exactly an illustrative turn of phrase) it might be someone who goes a wee bit nuts at the drop of a hat over whether or not a neo-Nazi can be called a "right-wing extremist".

OTOH, Shirley Sherrod, anyone? And he's bitching about "slandering" Pat Buchanan in that text exchange with John Cook? Seriously?

As I said, Breitbart was a thoroughly detestable hack. That doesn't make his early death a deserved one, but I refuse to be a hypocrite about how I felt about him when he was alive. 

My open letter to WTTW

I've had a considering bug up my ass (lovely image, that) about some of the pseudoscience and medical woo that makes the rounds on PBS programming in general (and WTTW in particular) during pledge drives, so I decided to give them a piece of my mind, such as it is.

Without any further ado, my cranky little letter to the station follows. And it wasn't written in even written in crayon, either. Imagine that.

Good evening:

I recently received a letter soliciting funds from you and would like to give you a reason as to why I would not be willing to become a subscriber at the current time.

Although currently unemployed, I would have been completely willing to contribute if it were not for your poor choice of pledge drive programming. In the past - and in this upcoming pledge drive as well - you have given exceedingly large chunks of your programming time to promoters of pseudoscience and medical quackery such as Deepak Chopra, Gary Null, Mark Hyman, Daniel Amen and others. Considering that you also air quality programming such as _Nova_ and _Nature_, I have to seriously wonder if you ever look into the supposed qualifications of these hucksters.

It seems contradictory that a station supposedly devoted to educational and news programming would somehow allow people to broadcast glorified informercials promoting one form of quackery or another merely becuause your station feels the need to attract attention to your fundraising efforts regardless of the method used. Such a strategy seems rather defeatist considering what your stated purpose is as a public television station.

If you think I'm alone in this sentiment, feel free to read the following article by Dr. Robert Burton, (link provided below) which you may or may not be familiar with. I would also like to point out that I would _gladly_ contribute to WTTW if you changed your policies concerning this segment of your programming, but as for now I cannot do so.

Thank you for your time.

Chris Krolczyk

(The Burton article in question can be found here)

(Also on Lurker)