Woo on WBUR
Let me set the record straight first: I’m a huge NPR fan. I think I first got hooked around 9/11, and I’ve been an avid listener ever since. Of the six preset stations on the car radio, the other five combined don’t get half as much playtime as NPR, which in my neck of the woods is 90.9 WBUR. I enjoy the high-quality reporting, the engaging interviews, and even the fun weekend shows like Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. I enjoy the whole affair so much that a couple years ago, I felt bad being a freeloader and started making yearly contributions. And beyond simple enjoyment, I also find myself learning a lot from listening. It’s become a significant and trusted source of information for me.
You can imagine my consternation, then, when a couple weeks ago my morning commute with WBUR was interrupted by an ad for a company providing ”detoxifying” services with “ionic energy fields”, oxygen supplementation, and nutrient supplementation. I won’t give the name here for fear of upping the company’s notoriety somehow. It was a rude, jarring, pseudoscientific intrusion into what was typically a very informative drive. How could WBUR advertise this crap? I knew they needed sponsors, as any public radio station does, but surely this was bending too low.
I almost blogged about my dismay that day, but work soon had me running around enough to forget that morning’s insult. My wedding and honeymoon came and went shortly thereafter, and I returned to my happy NPR listening habits, past injuries forgotten.
Until today.
I’m driving up Route 2 towards Concord, enjoying ”Only a Game”. The usual WBUR sponsor bit comes on, but this time instead of Landry and Arcari or the MFA, the nice female radio voice spits out the name of a school of homeopathy! Let me say that again - homeopathy. You have got to be kidding me. What’s next - sponsorship from a Boston psychics organization? Noni juice manufacturers? WBUR already broadcasts Science Friday. Maybe they should add Woo Wednesday to attract more sponsors.
So I’m calling out WBUR on this one, and I hope others do, as well. And remember, WBUR, it’s only because I love you. I know public radio money is not exactly overflowing, but there have to be some standards on who it’s ok to take money from. Those who make their living duping their customers with potentially harmful pseudoscience should not be given the opportunity to spread their message on stations such as WBUR, stations that exist to educate and provide information.
10 May 2008 ekchung
2 Responses to “Woo on WBUR”
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[…] we do receive our fair share of criticism. To wit: Ed of Ed’s corner of the web: I’m driving up Route 2 towards Concord, enjoying “Only a Game.” The usual WBUR […]
Having been the chairman of The Tech during a summer when we were more than $30k in the hole (TT runs on its own ads revenue; we were hit hard by both the early Dubya term 1 recession and by embezzling business staff), I reluctantly decided to run a Scientology insert. It was a summer issue, low readership, blah blah blah, and we made them print “special advertising insert to The Tech” on the top, but we still got complaints. I felt like a miserable sell-out fraud. I might as well have been jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch.
But I stand by my decision.
First of all, we really, really needed that $15k to stay solvent. I don’t think NPR exactly runs on an excess of funding, either.
Second of all, you can’t censor people just because you disagree with them (this comes up in the Op-Ed section too). Whether or not you respect homeopathy, it’s at least valuable to understand what drives people to seek alternatives to mainstream medicine.
What we really need to do is to educate people to interpret information, especially adverts, with a healthy dose of skepticism and with greater acceptance of complicated, ambiguous answers. I mean, even when people read quality science articles in legit publications, the takeaway message is often that this one JAMA paper is The Final Word on what causes cancer and if you just avoid A and B you can do whatever you like and never get sick.