Datv On Demand

Bob Garfield is a columnist, critic, essayist, pundit, international lecturer and obscure broadcast personality. He isn’t exactly a media whore, but he’s extremely promiscuous. Garfield’s “Ad Review” is a prominent feature of Advertising Age, where each week he singles out an ad for praise or ridicule and thus has become among the more pitifully groveled-before figures in trade-magazine history. In another life, Garfield is co-host of National Public Radio’s weekly Peabody Award-winning magazine program “On the Media.” This followed a dozen years as a commentator/correspondent for NPR‘s “All Things Considered.” Dubbed by The New York Times “the Charles Kuralt of Bizarro World,” he specialized in quirky Americana — an act he took to television, as well, producing pieces for public TV, syndication and CBS News. He also served as a political-advertising analyst for CBS, before being bounced in 1992 following an unfortunate Green Room incident. It was his most traumatic TV experience since “Oprah” in 1991, when he was humiliated by Mr. Whipple before a live studio audience. For many years, Garfield was the advertising analyst for ABC News. He’s been a regular on Financial News Network, CNBC’s “Power Lunch” and “Adam Smith’s Money Game” on PBS. He also has been quoted by every major American newspaper, news magazine and broadcast news program, owing to his fearless willingness to speak authoritatively on subjects he doesn’t necessarily understand. That technique is the secret behind his third book, The Chaos Scenario, to be released in spring 2009. Garfield has won many journalism prizes including some big ones and two National Press Club poker championships. He lives in suburban Washington, DC, where, in separate incidents 11 months apart, he has twice been rear-ended by federal employees.