With this post following soon after my previous one on Allen Esterson's contribution to the Erdelyi debate on repression, TIPSters might wonder whether I've become a one-man cheering section for Allen. This is not the case, and to demonstrate it I had marked down on my calendar to be sure to pick a fight with him before posting this. Now that I've accomplished that (see "Is dyslexia a myth?"), I can go ahead with this post.
The American public broadcasting television network (PBS) has earned a deserved reputation for excellence in programming and for incisive analysis of issues in politics and science (such as the admirable Frontline programme "Prisoners of Silence" on the facilitated communication controversy) This is probably why the network is so hated by the religious and conservative right in the USA and consequently chronically underfunded. But PBS has severely tarnished its fine reputation by its championing of the programme "Einstein's Wife", shown not once but twice on PBS, together with providing an acccompanying website and selling a DVD of the programme. "Einstein's Wife" purports to present scholarship which "proves" that Einstein did not alone carry out his brilliant work which revolutionized physics, but through an unacknowledged collaboration with his first wife, Mileva Maric. In effect, it claims that Einstein's fame resulted from stealing his wife's contribution and making it his own. We discussed this on TIPS a while ago. Some of us, suitably prodded by Allen, became outraged by this mendacious attempt to subvert scholarship in support of a political agenda (men are pigs, essentially). The programme made blatant use of half truths and lies to attempt, with some success, to destroy the reputation of one of the greatest thinkers the world has ever known. One should not be surprised to learn that known anti-semites have enthusiastically contributed to this exercise. We were outraged for a while, but then we forgot about it. Not so Allen. He got angry, but he also got busy, mounting a massive campaign against the promotion of this flawed programme by PBS. I'm pleased to report that Allen's campaign is producing results, not enough to satisfy him, but a start. The Ombudsman for PBS, Michael Getler, has recently published a lengthy review of the issues raised by Allen, including Allen's accusations, the responses of the producer of "Einstein's Wife" to it, the opinions of noted physicists, and Allen's response to the responses. The Ombudsman concludes that Allen is right. He said, in the cautious phrases of one who has to tread very carefully: "After watching and reading, hearing both sides and a lot of back and forth, my view is that Esterson, with the support of scholars cited, presents a more convincing and well documented case that this is a factually flawed and ultimately misleading combination of film and Web presentations." "I felt that while the story of Mileva Maric is fascinating, tantalizing and deserving of being told, that it also exaggerates her role and takes the viewer and reader too far beyond what is known." "I would recommend, pending a more scholarly assessment, shutting down the Web site until errors or statements that could be misleading are dealt with and greater context is provided. I don't know how you deal with the film except perhaps to not offer it for sale any longer until a further review is in hand." And immediately PBS rushed to do exactly that. Of course not. What they did was put up a grudging note on their "Einstein's Wife" website that goes like this: "Editor's Note - (December 19, 2006) The contents of this site are currently under review by site producers in response to viewer concerns about the historical accuracy of the information presented here. You can read more about the dispute in the PBS Ombudsman's detailed article on the topic. Oregon Public Broadcasting, the producer of this companion web site, will be consulting with the broadcast program producer and outside experts to conduct a thorough review of the criticisms before determining what, if any, changes should to be made to the site content. Future notices on the progress of the content review will be posted here." And on the accompanying "Classroom" site where teachers are provided with helpful lesson plans to encourage them to teach the "truth" about Mileva and Albert is this: "Editor's Note: The content of this site is currently under editorial review. Read More." [which flags the other Editor's note]. Will this modest disclaimer be enough to dissuade teachers from making use of this duplicitous propaganda? Let's hope that PBS gets around to doing more than this and removes the website entirely, as the Ombudsman recommends. In the meantime I want to commend Allen for his tenacious effort to right this injustice to the name of Einstein. Sources: The Ombudman's report makes fascinating reading but it is long, and if you go out to all the links as well, possibly overwhelming. Nonetheless, I think anyone with an interest in this matter would enjoy reading at least parts of it, if not the whole. The meager and obfuscating responses of the producer of the programme have to be read to be appreciated. The disgraced "Einstein's Wife" website is here: http://www.pbs.org/opb/einsteinswife The Ombudsman's report, titled "Einstein's Wife: The Relative Motion of 'Facts' " (Michael Getler December 15, 2006) is here: http://tinyurl.com/36gx9e http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/12/einsteins_wife_the_relative_motion_of _facts.html Note that it was Getler's idea to put "facts" in quotation marks in his title. Good idea. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Department of Psychology Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 0C8 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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