X-Message-Number: 3836 Date: 11 Feb 95 21:57:34 EST From: Saul Kent <> Subject: The Day One Show In my opinion, the recent Day One show on ABC-TV was a "hatchet job" only insofar as ABC felt that they had to make us look bad in order to maintain ABC's "reputation" among media executives, scientists, and doctors. The Day One producers shot many hours of footage, did considerable research, and spent a great deal of money. They had in their possession a great deal of evidence to show that the nutrient products recommended by The Life Extension Foundation are safe-and- effective for the purposes for which they are promoted. They also were given a great deal of evidence documenting the crimes of the U.S Food & Drug Administration (FDA). They had little or no evidence from us on cryonics because it wasn't the subject of our interviews, however they did make a trip to Alcor, where they, presumably, received evidence to support cryonics. They decided *not* to show or discuss any of this evidence on their show for three reasons, I believe: 1) Evidence is difficult for them to understand and evaluate. Since they have such difficulties in dealing with evidence themselves, they naturally assume that their TV audience will have these problems as well. 2) The FDA refused to comment on our allegations against them. As a result, ABC had no evidence from the FDA to support the FDA's position. Evidence is a real problem with the FDA. They are almost incapable of coming up with any...about anything. The "quack-busters" who appear on such shows also are allergic to evidence, which interferes with their mission in life...which is to bust "quacks". Since, in this case, the "quacks" were the only ones who presented Day One with evidence, they decided to rely upon reason number 3. 3) The Day One producer who handled my interview told me that they were going to be "very hard" on us because of all the flack they were getting (and expected to get) for giving us air time in the first place. He said that Day One/ABC was displaying considerable "courage" in showing an episode on such a "far-out" organization on national TV. In short, ABC decided that distorting the truth and misleading the public was the price *we* had to pay for national TV time on ABC. That doesn't mean that *they* think they disorted the truth and misled the public. I've found that media people are very good at "doublethink"--the concept put forth by George Orwell in his novel 1984, which enables them to reconcile directly conflicting facts or concepts. Saul Kent Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3836