Antiques Roadshow a @#*&$% fraud

[richlevy]

Originally posted by Dagnabit
Watching 60 Minutes 2, and they are doing a bit on the Antiques Roadshow, and now it comes out... the bits that get on TV are like 1 in 1000, only the good ones make it, and they're all hand-selected. So now everybody in the country thinks they have some $10,000 piece of shit in the attic, and PBS is playing everyone for lotto-lovin' fools, who like a big money-fer-nothing story but need it to be "culturally correct".

That was never really hidden and is quite reasonable. In any show like that it is normal to select the highlights. They really do go after out-an-out fraud, like when one set of appraisers brought in a ringer with a Civil War sabre. I think the cutaways which show the large volume of people in lines and the occasional 10 second scenes where a baseball card collection or some minor find is describied should get through the point that "big finds" are rarities. At least to most intelligent people. Even some of the featured finds are of relatively low monetary value. They even stated that the appraisers compete for the spotlight but that "interesting" does not always mean high monetary value.

I find the stories behind the pieces interesting and even educational. I don't think they have anything to answer for.