Einstein’s Wife: PBS Fails the Test of Integrity

Allen Esterson in Butterfilies and Wheels:

Screenhunter_16_aug_04_1515In July I had one of those good news/bad news days. First the good news. In response to the detailed complaint I had submitted in February 2007 to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about their promotion of the film “Einstein’s Wife”,[1] I received the following from Simon Melkman, ABC Audience & Consumer Affairs:

“Due to the breaches of the ABC’s Code of Practice which you have identified, the ABC will not broadcast ‘Einstein’s Wife’ again. In addition, the ATOM ‘Einstein’s Wife’ study guide has been removed from the ABC website.”

Now the bad news. On that same day I received from one of the Einstein specialists whose tendentiously edited interviews were included in the film the information that the US Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) has commissioned Andrea Gabor to re-write the “Einstein’s Wife” web pages (which would seem to imply that PBS intends to retain the film in their schedules). I’ll briefly outline the background to this decision.

More here.