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| Animal Planet logo prior to February 3, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
If you tuned into Animal Planets latest mermaid installation 'Mermaids: The New Evidence' then you know that it was presented in a documentary style format and was supposedly a follow up the original "mermaid" show that aired earlier on Animal Planet. If you missed the first show, the general premise was that there were "mermaids" in the oceans all over the world. The second installation presented their so called video and photographic evidence. Many watched, 3.6 million to be exact, only to discover later the whole show was a fraud, a hoax.
The shows writer/creator Chris Foley
admitted that the show was presented in a realistic way so that
people would at least consider there may be a possibility of some
unknown creature in our vast oceans. Many watchers though, feel the
show was misleading and believe that Animal Planet has lost a great
deal of credibility as a direct result of this latest venture. There
were some obvious clues that the show was lacking some authenticity
as the guest scientist did have the “deer caught in the headlights”
look on his face during the show.
The audience kept waiting for him to
say something insightful and were no doubt dismayed to discover no
such insights were forthcoming. There was some obvious computer work
involved but then again, hindsight is 20/20 as they. The big question
here is, now that we know that shows like Animal Planet will stoop
low enough to mislead and fabricate “evidence” will this make it
harder for those that are trying to argue on legitimate phenomena?
Will the real backlash from this “creative stunt” be that those
that have valuable evidence get thrown out with the bathwater now?
Regardless of whether you believe in the existence of mermaids or
not, there should be a very visible line between telling a good story
and representing something falsely as “evidence.” When Animal
Planet blurred that line, they blurred their authenticity and
credibility as well.
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