Gunman Attacks Discovery Channel
A gunman has been shot and killed by police after taking hostages at the American headquarters of the Discovery Channel:
A website registered to Lee criticized Discovery and announced plans for the protest in January 2008: “These guys have been very sneaky and deceptive as to their contribution to the planetary problems. Just look at their ‘new’ show about saving the planet, ‘Planet Green,’ to me, it’s just another show about more PRODUCTS to make MONEY, not about actual solutions. We can’t let them get away with doing it anymore.”
Lee is believed to have distributed a manifesto outside the Discovery building several weeks ago that called on the network to “broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet.”
“All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions,” the list of demands read.
“In those programs’ places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.”
Discovery owns the Animal Planet network, and most major media outlets feel the need to mention the “Whale Wars” series in their articles, noting that the company had received threats related to the show. One article contained this line:
Sources are saying the suspect is allegedly upset about the documentary called “Whale Wars.”
So far, I haven’t seen any reliable information about the gunman’s views about that TV show [WTOP later edited their article to remove the above-quoted line]. However, his views about the human race being “pollution” and the need to eliminate millions of humans are actually quite similar to those of Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson. Maybe the gunman thought the Sea Shepherd people on “Whale Wars” were not militant enough, or maybe he thought that Discovery was simply not putting enough focus on other issues? I’ll update this post as information becomes available….
Update: Mother Earth Network and AOL News now have articles up that discuss how Lee’s actions can be seen as “eco-terrorism” akin to the actions of Sea Shepherd and the ELF. I have found a few online postings by Lee that hint at his thoughts about whaling:
It’s really not about me. It’s about the pandas, lions, giraffes, dung beetles, worms, cockroaches, mice, eagles, sharks, whales, and don’t forget about the gorillas not to mention the squirrels. Yes, even the numerous squirrels.
The Discovery Channel produces a lot of shows about saving the planet that all have one thing in common: They don’t work. Why don’t they have REAL shows about SAVING THE PLANET? Have you ever noticed the crap they have on their network about just about everything else but that? They glorify fishermen who are overfishing the planet, they glorify Weapons of Mass Destruction. They highlight shows about people who build pollution machines and other environmentally harmful practices. What’s next? Whaling the Planet with Modern Whalers???
Both posts were made in early 2008. “Whale Wars” did not air until later that year.
[hat tip to Brian]
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