ellestra | Bad Discovery Channel (Reply)

I posted a video excerpt from BBC One's Frozen Planet documentary (hope you managed to see it before it was taken down). Wasn't it awesome? It turns out the US Discover Channel bought rights to broadcast it. However the David Attenborough series seven episodes long but Discovery only got rights for the six episodes. Why? Well, the last episode is about global warming.

A BBC spokesman tries to justify this:
A spokesman for the BBC said it would not make sense to force television networks outside the UK to buy the episode as it features 85-year-old Sir David talking a lot of the time to camera, and in many parts of the world he is not famous.

The broadcaster refused to say which countries had shunned 'On Thin Ice'. They said it wasn't included in the main package because it features Sir David 'in vision' which would make it hard for other countries to translate into their own language.

I could understand that (although last time I checked English was still official language in US and there never was any problem with showing sir David talking in his series) but it also turns out that [Discovery] were involved in the joint-production of the series. To make it even more dodgy they claim Discovery had dropped the full seventh episode due to 'scheduling issues. Yes, they cannot fit it into their schedule. Ever.

So it is understandable there are those who decided to demand some better explanation from Discovery (or at least find out if it's true - after all it was reported by Daily Mail). Do you find the answer as unsatisfactory as I do?

Dear Viewer: Thank you for contacting Discovery Channel. We appreciate your correspondence and for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us about Frozen Planet. Frozen Planet will not be airing on Discovery Channel in the United States until early next year and many programming and scheduling decisions have yet to be made. We do know that the stories, messages and essence of all of the BBC’s seven episodes will be represented throughout the truly landmark series. Again, thank you for contacting Discovery Channel.

Sincerely, Viewer Relations Discovery Channel

I didn't realise the global warming was such a horribly controvertial subject a channel supposedly devoted to science would avoid it. What's next? Evolution? Lets take their dinosaurs. Everybody knows the Earth is only 6000 years old so they couldn't die out 65 million years ago. BLEH.

I need something to wash out the bad taste from my mouth.

Here's something cute. It lets you pet it and then eats from a hand. Who wouldn't want a giant weta? You loved Jiminy Cricket on Sunday, didn't you?

Now you can see how weta, Weta and District 9 were meant for each other.

If that's not good enough there is also lots of easily accessible water on Mars and Women of Science festive ornaments.

However I'm still feeling about all of it like that giant squid: