Shark weak: the Discovery Channel's famous week is sinking to tabloid tactics [View all]

[wtmusic]

"The annual Shark Week television marathon puts many marine biologists and shark enthusiasts on edge. We love that it draws attention to sharks and that it sometimes includes some real science and conservation. We hate the way it's done: maximum menace and blood, a two-note soundtrack and, occasionally, a gross indifference to facts.

The Discovery Channel, which bills itself as the '#1 nonfiction media company' opened this year's Shark Week with a fictional 'documentary'. Confused? Apparently, the producers were, too. They opened the documentary these words:

None of the institutions or agencies that appear in the film are affiliated with it in any way, nor have approved its contents. Though certain events and characters in this film have been dramatized, sightings of "'Submarine' continue to this day.

Megalodon was a real shark. Legends of giant sharks persist all over the world. There is still a debate about what they may be.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/07/shark-week-discovery-channel-fail

Discovery markets titillating sightings of a shark-sasquatch as a "documentary". Fail.