And don't even get me started on the alleged documentary the Discovery Channel aired to start of their annual Shark Week entitled Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives. Nowhere prior to the airing did Discovery acknowledge this was not a real documentary, a fictional account of what could be.
I don't watch Shark Week, but I wanted to tune in because the idea that a prehistoric creature, one of the biggest on the planet and certainly the biggest know animal to have inhabited the oceans, thought to have gone extinct 1.8 million years ago could still be alive and swimming along intrigued me quite a bit. After all, many animals we thought went extinct millions of years ago have been verified as still existing within the last century. Have you ever heard of the Coelacanth? If not, you need to do some research because it is a very interesting story if you are as interested as I in that sort of thing. Long story short: The Coelacanth went from being thought extinct 65 million years ago to being the most endangered species on the planet when it was discovered as still being alive in 1938 off the coast of South Africa.
Shame on you, Discovery Channel. You are supposed to be an educational channel. At the very least, you could have admitted how fictionalized this account would be, and then we could all watch it for its entertainment value. But no, you chose to pass it off as complete fact, much like another channel did a while back with a certain "documentary" on mermaids. I personally know people who still believe that one to be true, no matter how much I tell them or show them it was a "mockumentary."
I wouldn't have steered clear if I had been told the show was speculation or fiction, but I wouldn't have watched and attempted to research the information presented. No, I would have watched and enjoyed a speculative film. That wouldn't have been a problem.
The issue isn't that Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives was a work of fiction, it's that the Discovery Channel attempted to pass it off a fact. It wasn't a joke, a laugh at us, the viewers, who watch these shows to learn. It was a big fuck you to the viewers and I don't take too kindly to that.
So I will no longer be watching the Discovery Channel since the information they present can no longer be trusted. At least with the mermaid show on the other channel, at least I went into that one knowing it was a mockumentary.
That's my rant on the matter.
Do some research on animals that were believed extinct only to be rediscovered millions of years after their alleged extinction. These are known as Lazarus taxons, animals or plants that have disappeared from one or more fossil records only to be rediscovered at a later time, mostly millions of years later. See, I'm not just pretty, I know lots o
I don't watch Shark Week, but I wanted to tune in because the idea that a prehistoric creature, one of the biggest on the planet and certainly the biggest know animal to have inhabited the oceans, thought to have gone extinct 1.8 million years ago could still be alive and swimming along intrigued me quite a bit. After all, many animals we thought went extinct millions of years ago have been verified as still existing within the last century. Have you ever heard of the Coelacanth? If not, you need to do some research because it is a very interesting story if you are as interested as I in that sort of thing. Long story short: The Coelacanth went from being thought extinct 65 million years ago to being the most endangered species on the planet when it was discovered as still being alive in 1938 off the coast of South Africa.
Shame on you, Discovery Channel. You are supposed to be an educational channel. At the very least, you could have admitted how fictionalized this account would be, and then we could all watch it for its entertainment value. But no, you chose to pass it off as complete fact, much like another channel did a while back with a certain "documentary" on mermaids. I personally know people who still believe that one to be true, no matter how much I tell them or show them it was a "mockumentary."
I wouldn't have steered clear if I had been told the show was speculation or fiction, but I wouldn't have watched and attempted to research the information presented. No, I would have watched and enjoyed a speculative film. That wouldn't have been a problem.
The issue isn't that Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives was a work of fiction, it's that the Discovery Channel attempted to pass it off a fact. It wasn't a joke, a laugh at us, the viewers, who watch these shows to learn. It was a big fuck you to the viewers and I don't take too kindly to that.
So I will no longer be watching the Discovery Channel since the information they present can no longer be trusted. At least with the mermaid show on the other channel, at least I went into that one knowing it was a mockumentary.
That's my rant on the matter.
Do some research on animals that were believed extinct only to be rediscovered millions of years after their alleged extinction. These are known as Lazarus taxons, animals or plants that have disappeared from one or more fossil records only to be rediscovered at a later time, mostly millions of years later. See, I'm not just pretty, I know lots o
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