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Can't Miss It: Weekend Edition Nov 20-22
Last night we flipped on the tee-vee, and stumbled on a KCTS fundraiser: Dr. Daniel G. Amen in his self-produced show, "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life." If you missed it, you're in luck: it's showing fifteen more times locally.
This is the same Dr. Daniel G. Amen featured on Quackwatch (his response) and whose claim to help "prevent" Alzheimer's was severely critiqued on Salon recently (once again, Amen responds). Whatever else is true (Amen seems well intentioned, he does have credentials), Amen's claims are not controversial in the sense of "How climate change works is controversial" (i.e., many scientists, many studies, many results)--they're controversial because Amen has been quicker to provide anecdotes than results of peer-reviewed studies.
So as Salon points out, it's a little premature to be giving Amen such a huge freaking megaphone:
Throughout March and April this year, "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" aired nearly 1,300 times on PBS stations across the country, reaching more than 75 percent of U.S. television households. As I was to learn after several frustrating phone calls and e-mails with PBS spokespersons, the nation's public broadcasting system did not vet "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" for scientific validity.
We can hear hear KCTS now: "Sure, our motto is 'Inform. Involve. Inspire.' But not all at the same time." The PBS ombudsman (who knew?) admits that because of the public trust placed in PBS, people may trust these infomercials shows more than they should. We don't blame PBS for pandering to its Boomer audience's phobias ("ALZHEIMER'S! ADHD! STROKE!"), but we do mind the implicit advocacy when the big guy with the mustache who's always off to the side snorking food ("Ah, this smells delicious! I can't wait!") on the Sunday morning cooking shows is reading questions from viewers to Amen in the studio.
We're not gonna pay money to watch that.
"Now Hear This" photo courtesy of Seattlest Flickr pool member monohex. Join the duck revolution, already in progress.
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Public radio is already forcibly funded by money the government takes from the people.
The ironic thing is: I would write a check for the programming today if the government would end its funding of public broadcasting and let these great shows compete for listeners in the marketplace.
There really is no need in today's multimedia world for the government to subsidize broadcasting. If a broadcast program is good enough, it does not need government funding.
Additionally, because it is, really, state-run media and the journalists are paid, in part, by the government, NPR's news coverage is always suspect.
NPR told advertisers several years ago that its listeners were 66 percent wealthier than the average American and 150 percent more likely to be professionals or managers.
These people can afford to pay for such programming if they really want it.
Let's face it, tax-funded broadcasting, as well as other tax-funded cultural activities such as art and music, is a transfer of wealth from the middle class, which is taxed to pay for the news and entertainment of the upper middle class.