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Dick Ebersol, gen1uS aT Wr0K
Jan. 16th, 2010 03:04 pmNot that anybody really needed further proof of this, but Heather Havrilesky points out how much of a tool Eberschmuck is for blaming Conan O'Brien for Jay Leno's 5-days-a-week mistake.
Some of you may've read a post of mine that linked to Orac's Respectful Insolence on Scienceblogs that went out of its way to clobber (and deservedly so, IMHO) Deepak Chopra. Here's a followup, and - although I shouldn't have been surprised by this - it mentions another woomeister whose video output has infested WTTW pledge drives over the years, namely Andrew Weil. Weil isn't the main target of derision here, but it occurs to me that Wilmette Talking to Winnetka might want to make some effort at vetting the claims of some of their celebrity pledge drive spokesthings. Granted, multiple airings of programming by the likes of Chopra, Weil and Gary Null is on the wane, but it seems that 'TTW sees no paradox in airing Nova one hour and a huge steaming pile of woo during their increasingly common pleas for mo' money.
Look, I realize that times are tight for PBS stations and that they have to raise as much of their budget through pledges as possible; I also realize that it's more than a bit disingenous of them to promote themselves as an educational channel while showing the likes of Chopra or - maybe worse - ramming the likes of Suze Orman or Robert Kiyosaki down our throats ad nauseum because someone might actually enjoy watching the same glorified "financial advice" informercial eight times in a two week period.
Granted, 'TTW does air stuff I've enjoyed during pledge drives, such as The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It's just that worthwhile viewing like that is seemingly outnumbered by a huge army of wastes of time, and you'd think that a station like 'TTW would be a bit more capable of garnering your attention with good programming while asking you for money rather than resorting to broadcasting dross and unprovable new age pap over and over again.
(Question: are those pledge drive segments actually hosted by WTTW? If not, then who?)
Look, I realize that times are tight for PBS stations and that they have to raise as much of their budget through pledges as possible; I also realize that it's more than a bit disingenous of them to promote themselves as an educational channel while showing the likes of Chopra or - maybe worse - ramming the likes of Suze Orman or Robert Kiyosaki down our throats ad nauseum because someone might actually enjoy watching the same glorified "financial advice" informercial eight times in a two week period.
Granted, 'TTW does air stuff I've enjoyed during pledge drives, such as The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It's just that worthwhile viewing like that is seemingly outnumbered by a huge army of wastes of time, and you'd think that a station like 'TTW would be a bit more capable of garnering your attention with good programming while asking you for money rather than resorting to broadcasting dross and unprovable new age pap over and over again.
(Question: are those pledge drive segments actually hosted by WTTW? If not, then who?)
