Infomercials on TV12 Public Television

I started a thread on the national TV board after seeing what appeared to be a blatant infomercial on public television station WHYY-TV.
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/sho...Television-Get-Away-With-Running-Infomercials

I put it on the national board because I thought at first this might be something stations around the country are doing. So, far people aren't seeing this in other markets. But WHYY-TV seems to run - and re-run - a lot of these shows. In some, they pay lip service to offering products as premium for station memberships. Other times, they just pitch the product. These shows include presentations that look like Ron Popeil could have produced them plus what look like pledge segments (but the pledge segments just pitch the product, not "quality television").

Have you seen these? Has public television sold out? Are you shocked, shocked to see how far channel 12 will go to pay its manager's super high salary, keep up and expand that fancy building, by the latest and best equipment, and start some for-profit subsidiaries?

I feel the same and it is certainly unfortunate to see, but hard to complain about when there's still "quality television" being broadcast on 12.2 and 12.3.

Count me in as thoroughly disgusted with the constant begging not just on 12.1 but what seems permanent begging on 12.2. It seems everytime I surf through they're running the same Streisand concert and the man building his own log cabin. The less said the better about the questionable "health" pitches with grinning audience members who sometimes shake their heads in amazement at such wonderful "health advice."

WHYY is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the market. One thing is for sure, they'll never get a penny from me.

I don't think anyone in the national thread said they didn't see these kinds of things in other markets, and in fact I gave multiple examples of how they're being done on both public radio and TV around the country, and even that the President of PBS has commented on it. It's been going on for a long time, at least five years, and no one has demonstrated that they're in any way illegal.