Biggest Loser? Healthy Eating. Weight Loss Is Not Entertainment

May 3, 2016 Update Medical communities and studies on metabolic measures should skew headlines into bold "I told you so" moments given that many have wagged about this show doing 'more harm than good' for years, yet producers bring it back time and again, knowing profit over public health reigns supreme. "I'm surprised someone hasn't died yet" should have been at least a … [Read more...]

Who Won the Debate? Kids’ Focus on Appearance Mirrors Our Country

Oct. 4, 2012 Ask any kindergartener to assess the debates last night and you’d probably hear simple reactions like: “He smiles more” or “He looks nicer” or “He looks like he didn’t study”…and frankly, they wouldn’t be too far off the national polls, from a stagecrafting and telegenic reverb perspective. Of course, if you focus on content, Romney would quickly lose the … [Read more...]

Prom Spending Surges? Media Panics, Hype & Critical Thinking

May 15, 2015 Update! Great then/now retrospective in the New York Times that spans proms over 60 years, all the way up to current "promposal" shenanigans, spending surges and social media selfies! Enjoy.  May 24, 2012 UPDATE woohoo! Called it! Validation happy dance! Today Show notes HUGE Visa survey inaccuracies in this blurb-> "Prom Spending Myth" but no one is seeing it … [Read more...]

Miss Travel: Misrepresentation Way Beyond Arm Candy

April 26, 2012 “If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck”… It doesn’t take much inductive reasoning to see Miss Travel is afoul. That said, using critical thinking skills to see why this new ‘dating site’ offering ‘free travel for attractive people’ (ahem, cough, prosti-travel) doesn’t pass the sniff test is a useful mini-lesson. Miss Travel is a teachable … [Read more...]

A HUGE Breakthrough for TV: Nuance Trumps Vapid Vixens Aplenty

August 12, 2010 In part one and part two of my posts about ABC Family’s Huge premiere, I hoped to see the show evolve from the hope and promise of some stellar scriptwriter ‘attachments’ to actually being ‘attached.’ I’d like to say they ‘had me at hello’ but frankly they did NOT. I’m not an ABC Family ‘teen soap’ fan of the shallow sniper-fire of frenemies and sexcapade … [Read more...]