which makes it an example of the reason I don't give to PBS: they can the programs I actually watch (chiefly Red Dwarf if it's on a channel I get, This Old House and Masterpiece Theatre episodes) to raise money by broadcasting something like this, silly financial shows, or musical groups that were popular in the 1950s. When they start Red Dwarf or This Old House marathons, well I might reconsider.

I saw this UltraMind stuff last week on KQED as well. It pissed me off because it was supposed to be Rick Bayless's "Mexico One Plate at a Time" on instead, and it wasn't! :)

I was hoping someone would write about this topic because it seemed pretty fishy to me.

Thanks, Robert.

PBS has been broadcasting what amounts to infomericals for various self help gurus for some time now. Dr. Phil, Susie Orman and some character called Pericone I think, who touts a health and beauty regimen. They all have a certain dubiousity about them. I gave up on PBS a long time ago.

Peddling this crypto-reactionary, dumbed-down mush to the post-yuppie target demographic is of a piece with dubious programming I've noticed in recent years on the local PBS affiliate.

For instance, there is a sort of pseudo-science program called "Secrets of the Dead" that seems to be a "Discovery Channel" soft-sciencetainment. It has respectable production values, but the style is conspicuously sensationalistic. It's something one wouldn't have seen on PBS in past years-- a big step down from, say, Jacques Cousteau TV.

And there have been similar sub-par "popular science" programs used as filler, although I can't think of any specific titles at the moment. I recall a lame low-rent series with a British-sounding narrator, investigating topics like "human spontaneous combustion".

It's definitely non-intellectual, vapid infotainment-- increasingly larger chunks of mealy potatoes and fewer slivers of meat in the stew.

Its just carney shills, hucksters and corporate shamwow with a spattering of nature footage and history fluff.

They lost me with Suzie Orman, numerous other "docs" and Ken Burns' pan and scan a old picture documentaries. Got to watch Friedman, Wallace and Rose crucify and slander Arafat in a hate fest eulogy after his death, the official story of 9/11 vindicated with CGI bushwash and apologists for every outrage of the past 20 years. I guess the last real stuff was Frontline going after Iran-Contra and the Homestead Air Force Base operation.

The BBC is good and the old movies but as for the rest, give the the clean colon guy and HIS infomercial.

Hey! Anybody hear about it? You can make a fortune in REAL ESTATE.

She is as bad as Cramer ranting on his show.....

It's a good thing public television offers programing that bears no resemblence to the garbage they put up during pledge drives or I'd never watch or be a member. I don't know who the pledge-break programming - chock full of schmaltz and infomercials - is geared toward because it certainly doesn't appeal to anyone I know.

They're making a huge public relations mistake by airing this stuff.

What got me wondering years ago about KQED in particular was that they bought a radio frequency in Sacramento to boost their coverage - a frequency that the local NPR affiliate KJZZ was bidding on. The local station wanted to move their renowned jazz programming to this frequency and go to news and information 24 hours a day on their existing channel. And this isn't some small burg - this is the state capitol! When you see this kind of predatory behavior from a station that supposedly acts "in the public interest," you've got to wonder.

PBS's habit of showing spiritual/new age guru's infomercials has enraged me for years. my grandmother went to a non-denominational (other than monetary) feel good church, and when i saw the same rhetoric and nonsense on a PBS program I nearly lost it.

How can they do this to viewers. They are betraying their whole identity. Enough already. I know PBS has already lost a lot of its credibility, but I still like some of the news, concerts, and historical programs. As someone who doesn't have a ton of channels I have watched a lot of PBS over the years, but I'm starting to lose faith fast. And this frustration over these infommercials is nothing new. I've found several blogs dedicated to the sheer outrage of this garbage long ago, and yet PBS acts like they are oblivious to it. I know they need to raise cash, but shit like this just makes people NOT want to donate. With all the corporate sponsorships they've acquired in the last few years you'd think they wouldn't have to stoop to this level to generate revenue. Then again, "birds of a feather"...

I'm not kidding-I bet this guy's love story beats the s**t out of anyone else's.

I'm sure this is old news to some but i recently noticed that the shout-outs to sponsors at the beginning of programs are now sponsor-produced commercials now for those sponsors? Isn't it supposed to be non-commercial?

"the reason I don't give to PBS: they can the programs I actually watch ... to raise money by broadcasting something like this"

So here is what you do. During pledge week, wait until its time for your favorite show. Then call the number on the screen. Tell the person who answers the phone that you tuned in to watch your favorite show, and found crap instead, so you are not pledging anything, but you would have pledged if your favorite show was on. Take as long as you can explaining this. When you finally have to hang up, do so, and hit redial. Repeat for the entire time your favorite show would have been on. Get your friends and family to do the same.

When the morons who run the station notice pledges for the time slot are down, and there were many calls about the program that should have aired, the lack of $$ might get the message across.

This infomercial nonsense started twenty some odd years ago with Leo Buscaglia and John Bradshaw. And let us not forget Gary Null.