bascule Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 From our friends at The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/science_channel_refuses_to_dumb "At this point, having the word 'how' in a show's title is about as close to scientific investigation as we get," Myers said. "In fact, I don't even know how we can justify airing a show like Mantracker at all. A cowboy hunts contestants down using his trailing skills? I guess you could say it makes the audience use 'observation' by watching what happens on screen." "Observation is a part of science, right?" Myers added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Skeptic Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Ha ha, that's hilarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the tree Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 If only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mokele Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Oh my god, that's *PERFECT* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Skeptic Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 If only. Well it does seem they recently decided to replace a world-renowned naturalist's narration with the same thing read by Oprah. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/yes-shes-queen-of-all-media-but-to-discovery-shes-life-itself-82678662.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphus Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Are ghosts responsible for the Bermuda Triangle? Did the Bible Code predict that Hitler is actually an alien? Find out tonight, on the totally legitimate History Channel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mokele Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 The history channel now has a show by Larry the Cable Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Skeptic Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 The history channel now has a show by Larry the Cable Guy Appropriately called "Only in America". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Severian Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 I am afraid that article was a little too close to the truth to be funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainPanic Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 I am afraid that article was a little too close to the truth to be funny. LOL, Until the use of some foul words, I didn't notice that this was not the truth. I thought they were just quoting an actual employee who was talking off the record (and therefore honest). This is what made me realize I was reading sarcasm: "Officials also noted that the cable channel greatly values the 18- to 45-year-old demographic of louts, clods, and empty-headed dumb ****s." It's surprising that the BBC and some of the non-commercial Dutch channels have by far the best documentaries. It seems that advertisements must go hand in hand with stupidity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the tree Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Although really, I'm not completely opposed to a show called Really Big Things: I quite like actual show MegaStructures although that's because the human interest side sort of overrides the science and engineering parts - it's nice to be reminded that it takes people to build those 'Really Big' things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syntho-sis Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Science Channel, History Channel, and Discovery Channel have really let themselves slide. It's just a reflection of the American Educational system imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 Apparently they found out what the news channels knew for a while already. Narratives are more interesting to people than facts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainPanic Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 Apparently they found out what the news channels knew for a while already. Narratives are more interesting to people than facts. It depends how you present them. I agree that the narrator makes a huge difference. But the narrator can include loads of facts. You just shouldn't fire them at the audience like gunfire. From my lectures at university, I conclude that you can definitely teach complicated topics in a very entertaining and interesting way. (And you can completely screw it up too). Watch for example a BBC nature documentary... really wonderful and very interesting. Sir David Attenborough made absolutely stunning documentaries which are full of information. The big difference is: those are hard to make. It's much, (MUCH!!) cheaper to place a film crew on a construction site than to try to film an endangered well-camouflaged bird in the rain forest. I'm afraid it's money. 80% of the "science" shows are just film crews on construction sites or workshops, or at least just filming ordinary engineers doing their work (including all the social stuff and fights). They make no costs at all, except for the film crew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syntho-sis Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 Yea but they suck! It's essentially just reality television under the mask of "popular science." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VedekPako Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 I used to love the science and history channels, but they have shows that are just plain uninteresting. What does a Pawn Shop have to do with history? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syntho-sis Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Now I will admit that Pawn Stars is kinda cool...Mostly just for the vintage guitars you occasionally see on there, but I don't think it should be classified as 'history.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ponderer Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 From our friends at The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/science_channel_refuses_to_dumb "At this point, having the word 'how' in a show's title is about as close to scientific investigation as we get," Myers said. "In fact, I don't even know how we can justify airing a show like Mantracker at all. A cowboy hunts contestants down using his trailing skills? I guess you could say it makes the audience use 'observation' by watching what happens on screen." "Observation is a part of science, right?" Myers added. It is sad that such a ubiqutous and attended medium should be reduced to appealing to the lowest common denominator, instead of attempting to raise the bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tau Meson Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) What could possibly be so bad about the History Channel, Science Channel, etc. Before they used to have such boring and educational shows like Cosmos, and now they have such interesting programs like Barbecue Tech, Dirty Jobs, and the History of Moonshine! Oh yeah, did I mention Two Weeks in Hell? All they do is talk about how people train in the military. Who wants to guess at what else they could possibly think of? Next time on Discover Health, we are going to explore the physics of Lord of the Rings. And then on 2 p.m., on the History Channel, the first episode of Food Fight! will premier. Edited February 15, 2010 by Tau Meson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayhawker Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 And then on 2 p.m., on the History Channel, the first episode of Food Fight! will premier. http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Food_Wars Its gonna be great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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