An open letter to Discovery Channel and the producers of Shark Week: For the second year in a row, you have tried to pass off fiction as fact and sensationalized dreck as quality educational programming. Despite the outpouring of disapproval in 2013, yet again you produce an opening night episode demonstrating not only that you care little for the true fans that brought Shark Week to its prominence, but also for science. I understand why you did it. Why should you care when your ratings keep growing? Why should you quit when the popularity of Shark Week swells, despite the types of programming you produce? Youre right; theres probably a significant amount of viewers who enjoy this type of nonsense. But if you take a moment to read the comments on the Shark Week FaceBook page, youll realize that those are not the viewers who have sustained and swelled Shark Week for the past 27 years. Over and over again, these comments reveal that the viewers who have been your loyal fans for close to three decades are not only disappointed, but rather disgusted with whats been done. The harm these shows are doing is evident; they are giving viewers false knowledge. Whereas Shark Week used to be about education and conservation, it is now more than dipping its toe into ignorance and sensation. But in addition to teaching erroneous knowledge, giving children, especially, a false sense of what sharks are, it is also doing great harm to the very animal this special week is dedicated to. In the mid 70s, after Peter Benchley saw how his fictional story of Jaws was being used as justification for killing sharks around the globe, he began a crusade to stop it, and in turn became one of the 20th centurys great educational conservationists. This cause/effect is common knowledge, and numerous episodes of Shark Week in years past have pointed out how Jaws provided an artificial picture of sharks, which led to their overfishing and, in some species - their near extinction. Its simple; when you portray sharks as merely monsters, you encourage monster hunters. While you have discussed this correlation over the years, you yourself havent learned this lesson. And now, a challenge: we, as your loyal viewers, who have helped to make Shark Week what it is, want this week to, annually, be the most watched week of programming in history, and we want you to achieve this by making the best programming possible. But we want you to do it without resorting to cheap tricks and tabloid entertainment - just stick to the facts. Thats all you need to do. Help your viewers to understand these beautiful and mysterious creatures, as you had done so splendidly from 1988 to 2012. There is no need for deception - sharks are fascinating without fictionalizing them. Thank you. Tom Ryan - author of A Sword for Pizarro and Devil Ray
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:07:00 +0000
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