1417 Public Broadcasting

PBS’s latest annoying begathon is underway.  That gives stations the excuse they need to justify the “public” in their names.

People who don’t belong on TV go on camera to plead with you for money because they fear all their corporate underwriters may soon be under water.

Usually these endless pleading sessions are led by heart-on-the-sleeve locals who recently graduated from sincerity school.  And their pitches are surrounded by “special” programs “you can’t see anywhere else.”  

There are reasons you can’t see them anywhere else. How many times can you watch a Victor Borge routine or a lecture from a college psych professor who believes all the world’s problems can be solved with hugs?

They must have realized that dead comedians hugging lessons and washed up faux folk music trios no longer bring in the big bucks.

So they’re interrupting regular programming with their information- free infomercials.  “We’ll be back with more of the Antiques Road Show after a few words from your neighbor Godzilla McNamara-Avocado.  (There’s a quota -- and bonus points at PBS and NPR for people with hyphenated names.)

You can practically hear the viewers saying “Oh goodie!  I’ll just dial in and contribute.  And I can’t wait to get my gluten-free Channel 13 tote bag so I can show off my intellectuality at Whole Foods.”

Try ShopRite.  Everyone at Whole Foods has a gluten-free Channel 13 tote bag.

“A Blu Ray collection of Downton Abbey?  Where do I sign up?”

“Gwen Ifill is the best writer on television.  But I can read her excellent blogs on the PBS website.  So until they get back to a real program, let’s switch over to HLN and watch the next five “back to back” episodes of “Forensic Files” even though they haven’t made a new one in ages, and we’ve seen most if not all of the 750 old ones.”

The “contributor credits” have expanded to full length (but oh, so intelligently framed) commercials.  But sometimes you have to wonder about where those sponsors got their money.

The William T. Grant Foundation:  funny they have a lot of bucks even though Grant’s low-pay, mid-price  variety stores shut down in 1976, in what was then the largest bankruptcy in US history.

The Knight Foundation:  Knight-Ridder had some really good newspapers.  But its focus drifted into financial paper shuffling and KR was held hostage by institutional investors who wanted out and forced the sale of the company.

PBS could take a hint from Madison Avenue and its customers by publicly answering the question “what kind of return are we getting on our investment in Godzilla McNamara-Avocado’s dreary appearances?”

Grapeshot:

-Gwen Ifill really IS the best writer currently working in national television and you really CAN read her posts on the NewsHour website.

-”Forensic Files” narrator Peter Thomas, known for his near-tears style of announcing, is 90 years old and still working.

Shrapnel:

--The 2015 edition of  WestraDamus.com is under construction.  Your non-prophet is open to suggestions for inclusions.  Please respond to the email address below.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2014

1412 Cosby

Even in his mega-star years there was one thing Bill Cosby never had to worry about.  He need never have feared he’d awaken, open his bedroom door and be overrun by a stampede of women eager to push him back onto the bed.

If true, all the dirt that has surfaced about him -- sometimes resurfaced --  makes you wonder what goes on in his head.

But a mega star he was.  Rich, famous and beloved.  Now, it turns out, rich, famous, beloved family man, Cliff Huxtable -- Dr. Huxtable -- was prescribing and dosing patients with more than “two aspirins and call me in the morning.”

Nothing like a couple of roofies to knock a doc off the pedestal.  If he actually did it.

If it was one woman one time and the case was settled and everyone is keeping silent, it still would be terrible. But it still would be one thing.  Now,  there are too many charges to just ignore.

Yes, innocent until proven guilty.  But.

Cosby is 77, and his career is still in high gear.  Or at least it was getting back there until recently.

Netflix was planning a comedy special for him.  NBC was developing a series.  Those have been scrapped.  TV Land has stopped showing reruns of “The Cosby Show.” He backed out of a booking on Letterman.  Circling the wagons.

What he didn’t back out of was an interview with NPR’s Scott Simon.  When Simon questioned him about the allegations, Cosby clammed up.

There was no comment, not even a throw away “no comment.”  Just silence.  Long silences are capital crimes in radio.  But Simon -- a decent and professional interviewer -- couldn’t even force a grunt out of Cosby, let alone an answer or defense.

The comment not heard around the world.

Back to that lack of a lineup outside the bedroom door:  If Bill Cosby felt he needed sex from a stranger, it couldn’t have been all that difficult to come by.  After all, star, rich, famous.

But to impose himself -- if that’s what he did -- on unconscious women in his hotel rooms or rental cottages is a career ender.  Maybe even if he didn’t.

Silent screen star Fatty Arbuckle was tried three times for rape and manslaughter after a woman died following a party he threw in 1921.

The first two juries hung.  The third acquitted.  Arbuckle was a pioneer comic, one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood.  He coached Charlie Chaplin, discovered Bob Hope and Buster Keaton.  But after the acquittal, his star died.

Cosby is heading in the same direction no matter what happens in a courtroom or behind the locked doors of a settlement conference in the carpeted mahogany paneled office of a Hollywood lawyer.

And whatever he did or didn’t do, his actions now show contempt for his audience, the same audience who made him rich, famous and beloved.  In show business, no court ruling is necessary and no recovery is possible.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2014