number1fan:
often pledge money to this cause every few months.
So would you like it if people called you a gelatinous tapeworm for only giving every few months, rather than every day? Of course you wouldn't. Like everyone else, you do what you can, when you can, and it's nobody elses's business anyway.
And would you like it if people accused you of being a hypocrite for only giving to charity in order to look cool on this forum? Of course you wouldn't. You only told us about it because you were answering Jock's post.
But isn't it the same for all the people who give money to Children In Need each year whom you despise so much?
If they also give money to charity quietly and anonymously throughout the year, as many people do (celebs and non-celebs alike), you don't know they're doing it, so you assume they aren't and criticise them for only giving once a year.
And if, on one day a year, they're asked by the BBC to do some charitable giving and fundraising very publicly as part of Children in Need (presumably in order to encourage others and to ultimately raise more money), so that you
do know they're doing it, you accuse them of only trying to look cool.
In your eyes, it seems people can't win, whether they give to charity anonymously, publicly, or both.
Don't get me wrong; ostentatious charitable giving
can look self-serving and offensive. (For example, Robert Maxwell demanding the red carpet treatment in Ethiopia springs to mind.) But I don't think it's fair to level that charge at people who donate to or raise money for the Children in Need telethon.