DVR Chatter

BB Couch Potatoes has published a report (from information in the New York Post) that questions the eligibility of Big Brother: Til Death Do You Part contestant Adam Jasinski due to a possible previous employment situation at CBS.

[A] rep for CBS as much as said that Adam once worked in Sales at CBS.

They were quoted as saying, "We can say that he went through the proper channels and auditioned for the show like everyone else."

If this is true, then what kind of "proper channels" would allow a former employee to even audition for the Show?

Smelling blood, bloggers are jumping all over the purported web site for the Charitable Foundation Jasinski claims to work for: United Autism Foundation.

The majority of the links on the site do not work (except, interestingly, the "Donation" link), and the "About Us" statement is the default installation message for CMS package Joomla.

If you've read anything at all about Content Management Systems (CMS), you'll probably know at least three things: CMS are the most exciting way to do business, CMS can be really, I mean really, complicated and lastly Portals are absolutely, outrageously, often unaffordably expensive.

Joomla! is set to change all that ... Joomla! is different from the normal models for portal software. For a start, it's not complicated. Joomla! has been developed for the masses. It's licensed under the GNU/GPL license, easy to install and administer and reliable. Joomla! doesn't even require the user or administrator of the system to know HTML to operate it once it's up and running.

A Whois Seach show that the site was just registered this past December.

Many sites are using the facts above to declare United Autism Foundation a scam organization.  This is irresponsible, and I'm not ready to go there yet.  However, I'd clearly stay away from donating through this particular web site. 

But it gets more complicated.  A search of Charity related sites shows that United Autism Foundation does indeed appear to be a valid registered non-profit in Florida. 

The web site listed for this organization, which features an apology for Adam's "retards" comment, is here.

A Whois search on this second site shows it's been around since last April, and that they were, at one time, heavily tying themselves into Adam's involvement in Big Brother.

Website Title:       Official Big Brother - Adam Jasinski Fan Website
Meta Description:       Big Brother Adam Jasinski and UNIAF needs your support. Help Today. Donate Today.
SEO Text: Adam Jasinski (Big Brother Adam/ BB Adam) is  supporting special needs children and their families. Please support Adam and the United Autism Foundation today. Thank you.

In my opinion, either site may or may not be a scam. Personally, I think this whole ordeal makes the United Autism Foundation (whoever they may be and wherever on the web they may be located) look bad.  It may or may not be a scam, I have no way to know that, but neither site looks particularly professional and I'd have a hard time taking any charity seriously when they title their site "Official Big Brother - Adam Jasinski Fan Website" or put up a site with broken links and the default Joomla! installation message.