Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The prodigal professor

Several years ago, Robert Redford produced a movie about a television game show that was rigged -- and a university professor (Charles Van Doren) as part of the deception. The situation was exposed, congress was involved, and the professor went on to be an editor at Encyclopedia Britanica :)

Van Doren recently wrote his side of the story for The New Yorker magazine, about 50 years after the fact. I thought it was interesting to hear his moral struggles with the rigged game show then, and offers to participate in the movie 40 years later.