Baby Einstein Makers are Angry

A few days ago the University of Washington published findings on the Baby Einstein videos, and now Baby Einstein is mad! They are demanding a full retraction of the study. They question the validity of the study and whether it was well executed. They go as far as to say,

"Our assessment, based on what we have been able to learn thus far, is that its methodology is doubtful, its data seem anomalous and the inferences it posits unreliable."

Looks like to me they hired some lawyers quickly and threw this letter together. Some of their counter arguments seem rather weak. Perhaps in their attempt to write a speedy responce they didn't take the time to really read. They write,

"That is to say, watching American Idol is better for infants than no television at all. Of course, such advice is absurd."

In reality, they wrote that in watching American Idol it is more likely that an adult would be watching along and therefore their presence would have an affect of engaging the baby-- and that engagement with an adult does have developmental benefits and hence is better than the infant watching programs alone.

The full text of the letter can be found here.