Thanks to our “friends” at the Age of Autism, I’ve learned something interesting.
I knew that antivaccinationist “mother warrior” and Indigo Child Supreme Jenny McCarthy was slated to appear tomorrow, September 24, on the television show that arguably serves as the most powerful and pervasive promoter of woo, magical thinking, and dubious health advice in the world, The Oprah Winfrey Show. I hadn’t actually planned on watching it (I’m never home when it’s on anyway), and setting the DVR to record it for later viewing seems more than I’m willing to do to expose my brain to the neuron-apoptosing and -necrosing antivaccinationist stupidity that Jenny routinely lays down (and if it’s not antivaccine propaganda or autism quackery, it’s Indigo child woo). Indeed, lately I’ve been questioning whether any blog post, no matter how snarky and fun it might be, can ever be worth that kind of self-abuse to achieve.
However, I’ve learned that Jenny is going to be available live for a web chat tomorrow evening at 7 PM CDT:
Jenny McCarthy will be LIVE on Oprah.com Wednesday, September 24 at 7 p.m. CT and she wants hear from YOU! What questions do you have for Jenny? What stories would you like to share? If you want to speak to Jenny McCarthy LIVE, we want to hear from you!
OK, OK, I realize that obviously hostile questions are are about as likely to be brought to Jenny’s attention as the proverbial snowball is of surviving more than a minute in Hell. I also realize that the form requires a bit more personal information than you might be willing to give, for instance a telephone number. However, I’m hoping enough of you will be willing to give it a try. At the very least, the producers will see questions that would call into question Jenny’s stories about Evan, her son. Cynical woo-pushers that they are, it probably won’t make a difference, but it’s possible–just possible–that a carefully enough worded skeptical question might make it through the editorial gauntlet.
To that end, I once again rely on you, my readers, to make suggestions for skeptical questions that would put Jenny on the spot, questions that are both interesting enough and phrased in such a way that they might actually make it through the gauntlet of screening. You’ll have to be clever, but I know you have it in you. The comments of this post will then serve as a repository for ideas for such questions for anyone who actually might want to submit them!
