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Climate change episode of 'Frozen Planet' won't be aired in the US/other countries

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Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
An episode of the BBC's Frozen Planet documentary series that looks at climate change has been scrapped in the U.S., where many are hostile to the idea of global warming. British viewers will see all seven episodes of the multi-million-pound nature series throughout the Autumn.

But U.S. audiences will not be shown the last episode, which looks at the threat posed by man to the natural world. It is feared a show that preaches global warming could upset viewers in the U.S., where around half of people do not believe in climate change.

The series of six episodes has been sold to 30 countries, including China, one of the world's biggest polluters.

World TV networks have the option to buy a seventh 'companion' episode, along with behind-the-scenes footage.

Ten of the countries have chosen not to use the final episode on climate change

In the U.S., Frozen Planet is being aired by Discovery. They were involved in the joint-production of the series. Yet they are still refusing to accommodate Frozen Planet in its entirety. The timing of a one-sided global warming programme could be particularly sensitive in the U.S., where climate change is an issue in the presidential race.

GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry accuses climate scientists of lying for money. A poll earlier this year found that the majority of Americans believe that if climate change does exist, it is not caused by humans.

Fifty-three per cent of Republicans say there is no evidence of climate change, while the number is far higher among Tea Party supporters, with 70 per cent saying the theory is 'junk science' pushed by groups with a vested interest.

Sir David Attenborough presents and authors the series, the seventh episode of which, entitled 'On Thin Ice', looks at how the planet's ice is changing and what it means not only to the animals and people at the Poles but also the rest of the planet. 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.

Discovery had dropped the full seventh episode due to 'scheduling issues', the spokesman added. However, environmentalists branded the decision 'unhelpful'. Harry Huyton, head of climate change for the RSPB, accused networks who haven't bought the final episode of 'censoring the issue'.

A Greenpeace spokesman said: 'Climate change is the most important part of our polar story.' The show cost an estimated £16million and took four years to make and has proved hugely popular.

It examines various aspects of the polar wilderness over the seasons and follows the lives of creatures from polar bears and wolves in the Arctic to killer whales and Adelie penguins in the Antarctic. It has been produced by the BBC's Natural History Unit in Bristol in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and The Open University.

The climate change episode will be aired on December 7 at 9pm.
Daily Mail
Telegraph

Not surprising, considering Discovery's previous treatment of the Natural History Unit's flagship series and the BBC's indifference to this butchering.

More incentive for everyone to buy the Blu-ray.

KtQ1Q.jpg
 

Empty

Member
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.

but the first episode has him 'in-vision'
 

Korey

Member
Why would BBC care about "upsetting viewers in the U.S."? They should be more concerned about potentially educating them
 

VALIS

Member
braves01 said:
smh america

No no. Not America's fault. It's the Discovery Channel's fault for being raging pussies. Which they are, frequently. For one, while the opposition to a belief in man made climate change is a very vocal group in America, it's still a minority group, not the prevalent opinion. Second, even if it was the prevalent opinion, who gives a shit? Have some guts!
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Assume that that half of American audiences are correct, and there's no climate change or it's not man-made, or any other alternate hypothesis. Why would that audience be willing to watch the rest of the series? I wouldn't buy a Creationist documentary set about global climate stuff if they excised the one episode about God single-handedly making the planet 6000 years ago. I would deeply distrust the entire series, the maker's motivations, and wouldn't be comfortable knowing that any other claim or analysis or facts in the series could be similarly tainted.

BBC should stand by its work and sell it either as a package deal or not at all. Discovery should stand by the work they're buying and air it either as a package deal or not at all. If Discovery feels dissenters are incorrect, they do an intellectual disservice to themselves by presenting an excised version of the work, and if Discovery feels the dissenters are correct, they do an intellectual disservice by presenting the work at all.
 

Empty

Member
Korey said:
Why would BBC care about "upsetting viewers in the U.S."? They should be more concerned about potentially educating them

(note: i don't agree with the decision) the bbc are concerned they'll get less money for the series from us networks with the "controversial" stuff in there. bbc funding is a political issue in the uk at the moment and they are already making a number of cuts to deal with the license fee being frozen, so i imagine they are desperate not to lose out on more revenue.
 

braves01

Banned
VALIS said:
No no. Not America's fault. It's the Discovery Channel's fault for being raging pussies. Which they are, frequently. For one, while the opposition to a belief in man made climate change is a very vocal group in America, it's still a minority group, not the prevalent opinion. Second, even if it was the prevalent opinion, who gives a shit? Have some guts!

You're right that Discovery needs to find a backbone, but from the OP:

A poll earlier this year found that the majority of Americans believe that if climate change does exist, it is not caused by humans.

I think that is still smh-worthy.
 
People are really ignorant if they don't believe in climate change. (in my opinion)

Eventually we won't be able to watch or do anything without offending someone whose opinion differs from the subject matter.

Makes me think of how Studio Ghibli doesn't allow their films to be edited when released in other countries...should apply to TV series too...
 

VALIS

Member
braves01 said:
You're right that Discovery needs to find a backbone, but from the OP:



I think that is still smh-worthy.

Well there's definitely polls all over the map on this. Here's one I just found that puts Britons behind Americans and Canadians as far as belief in man made climate change!

Overall, half of Canadians (52%, -8 since October) and Americans (49%, +7) say that that global warming is a fact and is mostly caused by emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities. Only 43 per cent of Britons (-4) agree with this assessment.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/440...al-warming-more-than-americans-and-canadians/
 

Telosfortelos

Advocate for the People
Stumpokapow said:
Assume that that half of American audiences are correct, and there's no climate change or it's not man-made, or any other alternate hypothesis. Why would that audience be willing to watch the rest of the series? I wouldn't buy a Creationist documentary set about global climate stuff if they excised the one episode about God single-handedly making the planet 6000 years ago. I would deeply distrust the entire series, the maker's motivations, and wouldn't be comfortable knowing that any other claim or analysis or facts in the series could be similarly tainted.

BBC should stand by its work and sell it either as a package deal or not at all. Discovery should stand by the work they're buying and air it either as a package deal or not at all. If Discovery feels dissenters are incorrect, they do an intellectual disservice to themselves by presenting an excised version of the work, and if Discovery feels the dissenters are correct, they do an intellectual disservice by presenting the work at all.
It seems just a likely that purchasing six episodes made more budgetary since for Discovery than purchasing 6 in one package and a separate 7th. I think we're reading too much into this without further details. Do we have anything actually stating that Discovery was afraid they'd offend too many of their viewers?
original article said:
Sir David Attenborough presents and authors the series, the seventh episode of which, entitled 'On Thin Ice', looks at how the planet's ice is changing and what it means not only to the animals and people at the Poles but also the rest of the planet. 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.
It's more likely that just didn't seem like good television to Discovery.
 

relaxor

what?
Well that's ridiculous. Another example of America's bipolarity, considering NASA (taxpayer dollars) has been leading the research and proliferation of information on climate change for 30 years.
 

Dragon

Banned
relaxor said:
Well that's ridiculous. Another example of America's bipolarity, considering NASA (taxpayer dollars) has been leading the research and proliferation of information on climate change for 30 years.

Too bad NASA got their budget cut...
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
Stumpokapow said:
Assume that that half of American audiences are correct, and there's no climate change or it's not man-made, or any other alternate hypothesis. Why would that audience be willing to watch the rest of the series? I wouldn't buy a Creationist documentary set about global climate stuff if they excised the one episode about God single-handedly making the planet 6000 years ago. I would deeply distrust the entire series, the maker's motivations, and wouldn't be comfortable knowing that any other claim or analysis or facts in the series could be similarly tainted.

BBC should stand by its work and sell it either as a package deal or not at all. Discovery should stand by the work they're buying and air it either as a package deal or not at all. If Discovery feels dissenters are incorrect, they do an intellectual disservice to themselves by presenting an excised version of the work, and if Discovery feels the dissenters are correct, they do an intellectual disservice by presenting the work at all.

That's a great moral standpoint and all, but... I mean...

ogwe8h.gif


That's a lot of money to give up.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Telosfortelos said:
It seems just a likely that purchasing six episodes made more budgetary since for Discovery than purchasing 6 in one package and a separate 7th. I think we're reading too much into this without further details. Do we have anything actually stating that Discovery was afraid they'd offend too many of their viewers?

Intractable problem; Discovery would never put out a release if it was the reason and they'd never provide the economics to verify any budgetary excuse, so without trusting the article's slant, there's basically no way we can have further discussion. I guess I could lock the thread on the grounds that it's not supported.

Clearly anyone responding to this allegation is doing so assuming that the allegation is true.

Kinitari said:
That's a great moral standpoint and all, but... I mean...

ogwe8h.gif


That's a lot of money to give up.

BBC should just call this Ghost Hunters: Ice Town and cut Attenborough entirely and just make it about some dudes wanting around a snowy field and hearing psychic ESP ghost alien noises.
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
VALIS said:
Well there's definitely polls all over the map on this. Here's one I just found that puts Britons behind Americans and Canadians as far as belief in man made climate change!



http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/440...al-warming-more-than-americans-and-canadians/

Global warming is MOSTLY caused by man-made emissions? Disagree. And Global warming is a poor choice of words, no wonder that's all over the map, the informed and the uninformed wouldn't know whether to agree or disagree with that assertion.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Assume that that half of American audiences are correct, and there's no climate change or it's not man-made, or any other alternate hypothesis. Why would that audience be willing to watch the rest of the series? I wouldn't buy a Creationist documentary set about global climate stuff if they excised the one episode about God single-handedly making the planet 6000 years ago. I would deeply distrust the entire series, the maker's motivations, and wouldn't be comfortable knowing that any other claim or analysis or facts in the series could be similarly tainted.
BBC should stand by its work and sell it either as a package deal or not at all. Discovery should stand by the work they're buying and air it either as a package deal or not at all. If Discovery feels dissenters are incorrect, they do an intellectual disservice to themselves by presenting an excised version of the work, and if Discovery feels the dissenters are correct, they do an intellectual disservice by presenting the work at all.

Let me translate this to American.

FIND YER BALLS, DISCOVERY, WHO CARES WHAT SOME DUMBASSES THINK
 
China believes in climate change that's why they have invest to have 10% of power generation from renewable sources and has made solar cells so cheap the us companies are going bankrupt
 

Chris R

Member
Well just let Discovery know that you won't be watching ANY episode due to this decision and will instead just get the Blu Ray that BBC releases. I bet if enough people did this they might change their tune.
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
speculawyer said:
As if the Tea Party watches BBC science shows.

There's no NASCAR or pro-wrestling in BBC science shows.

Are you kidding me? Do you know how many old white couples buy BBC life and planet earth at work - mind you I'm Canadian, but I'm sure it's the same in the states. And old white people probably make up a significant percentage of evolution deniers - probably black, brown and whatever people too actually... hmm, I didn't think this through. Okay I'm just going to say old people in general are both evolution deniers, and lovers of LIFE and Planet earth. That's a lot of money to give up.

I'm also curious, in LIFE there were a few off the cuff mentions of evolution, I wonder if people got pissed at that?
 
BIUSQ.gif



How can you possibly defend such a decision? It's pure politics, denying a fact you don't like, and therefore not allowing documentaries on the subject?

The US is so fucked up ideologically, it's truly depressing.

Oh, and I'd like to see the other 10 countries who won't air the last episode, I don't want to single out the US for being idiots.
 

Bit-Bit

Member
WTF?!?!

Bending over backwards to appease people ignorant of Global Warming?!?!? Shouldn't we be doing the opposite and airing the shit out of that episode? Who is in charge of this? Someone fix this!
 

marrec

Banned
rhfb said:
Well just let Discovery know that you won't be watching ANY episode due to this decision and will instead just get the Blu Ray that BBC releases. I bet if enough people did this they might change their tune.

Better yet, sell it as a prediction made by Nostradamus.

They'd run it 24/7.
 

Telosfortelos

Advocate for the People
Souldriver said:
BIUSQ.gif



How can you possibly defend such a decision? It's pure politics, denying a fact you don't like, and therefore not allowing documentaries on the subject?

The US is so fucked up ideologically, it's truly depressing.

Oh, and I'd like to see the other 10 countries who won't air the last episode, I don't want to single out the US for being idiots.
In the article, a BBC rep says they decided not to include the 7th episode in the package because it mostly features someone who most non-British don't know on camera speaking about the subject.

And besides, American television doesn't work that way. They don't air television based on what the majority of American's believe in. For one thing, I'd be willing to bet Discovery Channel's demographic skews towards climate-change believers.

That said, I certainly wish they had included the episode, and I can only hope that outrage over this will make them even slightly more likely to feature content about global warming in the future.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
marrec said:
Better yet, sell it as a prediction made by Nostradamus.

They'd run it 24/7.
Replace David Attenborough with Giorgio Tsoukalos and make it about ancient aliens terraforming Earth in cycles over the course of millennia.

Perfect for the History Channel.
 

marrec

Banned
MetatronM said:
Replace David Attenborough with Giorgio Tsoukalos and make it about ancient aliens terraforming Earth in cycles over the course of millennia.

Perfect for the History Channel.

I freaking hate TV.

I've been too cussy lately. Probably from not watching enough of the History channel.
 

Orayn

Member
Waiting for GAF's own climate change deniers to show up and take a steaming dump of ignorance on this thread.

"OH MAN, THEY KNOW IT'S A LIE SO THEY'RE CUTTING IT OUT!"
 

Slavik81

Member
Telosfortelos said:
Read the full article. Discovery never stated they were selectively removing this episode because it was too extreme. In fact, a BBC rep says they decided not to include the 7th episode in the package because it mostly features someone who most non-British don't know on camera speaking about the subject.
It's David Motherfucking Attenborough!
 

jambo

Member
Stumpokapow said:
BBC should just call this Ghost Hunters: Ice Town and cut Attenborough entirely and just make it about some dudes wanting around a snowy field and hearing psychic ESP ghost alien noises.

Xr3k3.gif
 

KHarvey16

Member
Kinitari said:
Global warming is MOSTLY caused by man-made emissions? Disagree. And Global warming is a poor choice of words, no wonder that's all over the map, the informed and the uninformed wouldn't know whether to agree or disagree with that assertion.

We kicked the weight further down the see-saw and started this, so I don't think assigning us most of the blame is incorrect. We are not the mechanism at work but we are the reason it's doing its thing.
 
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