PBS: Please Buy Stuff?

That’s what Steve Bornfeld dubs the pubcaster in his Mediology column for The Las Vegas Review-Journal. He’s troubled by pledge shows such as the Brain Fitness for Kids programs, which he compares with infomercials hawking related books and CDs. “PBS should position itself above high-class hucksterism that, stripped of production polish, would be a cozier fit in its natural habitat: paid-for filler on commercial TV,” he writes. “Perfumed by PBS, it still has the stench of salesmanship on airwaves long home to cultural/educational enrichment.”