Original article –
The battle over the Amazon has been turned into a Brazilian telenovela
Mother Jones
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Maggie Haberman reports on how President Trump spends his days:
His mornings, he said, are spent as they were in Trump Tower. He rises before 6 a.m., watches television tuned to a cable channel in a small dining room in the West Wing, and looks through the morning newspapers: The New York Times, The New York Post and now The Washington Post.
But his meetings now begin at 9 a.m., earlier than they used to, which significantly curtails his television time. Still, Mr. Trump, who does not read books, is able to end his evenings with plenty of television.
….Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, went back to New York on Sunday night with their 10-year-old son, Barron, and so Mr. Trump has the television — and his old, unsecured Android phone, to the protests of some of his aides — to keep him company. That was the case after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, when Mr. Trump appeared to be reacting to the Bill O’Reilly show on Fox News, which was airing a feature on crime in Chicago.
Naturally, I am reminded of this famous photograph:
Like LBJ, Trump watches a lot of TV to see how he’s being portrayed, and then spends a big part of his day seething over slights real and imagined. In the end, that didn’t work out so well for President Johnson, but of course television was a new and unsettling thing for him. Trump, by contrast, is a media native, having spent his entire life in front of the tube. Maybe endless seething will work out better for him. Maybe.
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Mother Jones
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First there was Trump: The Game. Almost two decades later, the billionaire slapped his name on a different sort of product, and Donald Trump, The Fragrance was born. For fans who wanted to smell of eau de Trump, the magnate released his first cologne in 2004. For the mere price of $60, Trump’s fragrance would “make you feel like a success,” the billionaire said at an event covered by the Chicago Sun-Times. According to another report, in the Chicago Tribune, Trump claimed it could even bring success in love. “If a man puts it on, he can have any woman he wants,” Trump said at a launch event at the now-defunct Chicago department store Marshall Field’s. “Or man he wants.”
The scent, created in partnership with Estee Lauder, smelled “floral and fruity and green,” according to the Tribune, and its central note was concocted from an “exotic plant” kept secret by Estee Lauder.
The reviews? Maybe not what the billionaire expected. The Tribune quoted reviewers who gave surprising descriptions of its essence. One woman said it was reminiscent of “Jamba Juice,” while a man said it smelled of “upscale strip clubs.” Another lady called the bottle “appropriately phallus-like.”
But to Trump, the cologne would appeal to any customer. “The Fragrance is for everyone,” he told the Sun-Times.
Read the rest of “The Trump Files”:
Trump Files #1: The Time Andrew Dice Clay Thanked Donald for the Hookers
Trump Files #2: When Donald Tried to Stop Charlie Sheen’s Marriage to Brooke Mueller
Trump Files #3: The Brief Life of the “Trump Chateau for the Indigent”
Trump Files #4: Donald Thinks Asbestos Fears Are a Mob Conspiracy
Trump Files #5: Donald’s Nuclear Negotiating Fantasy
Trump Files #6: Donald Wants a Powerball for Spies
Trump Files #7: Donald Gets An Allowance
Trump Files #8: The Time He Went Bananas on a Water Cooler
Trump Files #9: The Great Geico Boycott
Trump Files #10: Donald Trump, Tax-Hike Crusader
Trump Files #11: Watch Donald Trump Say He Would Have Done Better as a Black Man
Trump Files #12: Donald Can’t Multiply 16 and 7
Trump Files #13: Watch Donald Sing the “Green Acres” Theme Song in Overalls
Trump Files #14: The Time Donald Trump Pulled Over His Limo to Stop a Beating
Trump Files #15: When Donald Wanted to Help the Clintons Buy Their House
Trump Files #16: He Once Forced a Small Business to Pay Him Royalties for Using the Word “Trump”
Trump Files #17: He Dumped Wine on an “Unattractive Reporter”
Trump Files #18: Behold the Hideous Statue He Wanted to Erect In Manhattan
Trump Files #19: When Donald Was “Principal for a Day” and Confronted by a Fifth-Grader
Trump Files #20: In 2012, Trump Begged GOP Presidential Candidates to Be Civil
Trump Files #21: When Donald Couldn’t Tell the Difference Between Gorbachev and an Impersonator
Trump Files #22: His Football Team Treated Its Cheerleaders “Like Hookers”
Trump Files #23: The Trump Files: Donald Tried to Shut Down a Bike Race Named “Rump”
Trump Files #24: When Donald Called Out Pat Buchanan for Bigotry
Trump Files #25: Donald’s Most Ridiculous Appearance on Howard Stern’s Show
Trump Files #26: How Donald Tricked New York Into Giving Him His First Huge Deal
Trump Files #27: Donald Told Congress the Reagan Tax Cuts Were Terrible
Trump Files #28: When Donald Destroyed Historic Art to Build Trump Tower
Trump Files #29: Donald Wanted to Build an Insane Castle on Madison Avenue
Trump Files #30: Donald’s Near-Death Experience (That He Invented)
Trump Files #31: When Donald Struck Oil on the Upper West Side
Trump Files #32: When Donald Massacred Trees in the Trump Tower Lobby
Trump Files #32: When Donald Demanded Other People Pay for His Overpriced Quarterback
Trump Files #33: The Time Donald Sued Someone Who Made Fun of Him for $500 Million
Trump Files #34: Donald Tried to Make His Ghostwriter Pay for His Book Party
Trump Files #35: Watch Donald Shave a Man’s Head on Television
Trump Files #36: How Donald Helped Make It Harder to Get Football Tickets
Trump Files #37: Donald Was Curious About His Baby Daughter’s Breasts
Trump Files #38: When Democrats Courted Donald
Trump Files #39: Watch the Trump Vodka Ad Designed for a Russian Audience
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The Trump Files: Donald’s Cologne Smelled of Jamba Juice and Strip Clubs
Mother Jones
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Until the election, we’re bringing you “The Trump Files,” a daily dose of telling episodes, strange-but-true stories, or curious scenes from the life of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Donald Trump’s history of creepy comments about the looks of his eldest daughter, Ivanka, are well known. But his younger daughter, Tiffany, is a recent college graduate who has largely stayed out of the spotlight—much like her father’s equally creepy comments about her anatomy.
In September 1994, a little less than a year after Tiffany was born to Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples, the couple appeared on an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. “Donald, what does Tiffany have of yours and what does Tiffany have of Marla’s?” asked host Robin Leach.
“She’s a very beautiful baby,” Trump replied. “She’s got Marla’s legs. We don’t know whether or not”—he put his hands to his chest to indicate breasts—”she’s got this part yet, but time will tell.”
Read the rest of “The Trump Files”:
Trump Files #1: The Time Andrew Dice Clay Thanked Donald for the Hookers
Trump Files #2: When Donald Tried to Stop Charlie Sheen’s Marriage to Brooke Mueller
Trump Files #3: The Brief Life of the “Trump Chateau for the Indigent”
Trump Files #4: Donald Thinks Asbestos Fears Are a Mob Conspiracy
Trump Files #5: Donald’s Nuclear Negotiating Fantasy
Trump Files #6: Donald Wants a Powerball for Spies
Trump Files #7: Donald Gets An Allowance
Trump Files #8: The Time He Went Bananas on a Water Cooler
Trump Files #9: The Great Geico Boycott
Trump Files #10: Donald Trump, Tax-Hike Crusader
Trump Files #11: Watch Donald Trump Say He Would Have Done Better as a Black Man
Trump Files #12: Donald Can’t Multiply 16 and 7
Trump Files #13: Watch Donald Sing the “Green Acres” Theme Song in Overalls
Trump Files #14: The Time Donald Trump Pulled Over His Limo to Stop a Beating
Trump Files #15: When Donald Wanted to Help the Clintons Buy Their House
Trump Files #16: He Once Forced a Small Business to Pay Him Royalties for Using the Word “Trump”
Trump Files #17: He Dumped Wine on an “Unattractive Reporter”
Trump Files #18: Behold the Hideous Statue He Wanted to Erect In Manhattan
Trump Files #19: When Donald Was “Principal for a Day” and Confronted by a Fifth-Grader
Trump Files #20: In 2012, Trump Begged GOP Presidential Candidates to Be Civil
Trump Files #21: When Donald Couldn’t Tell the Difference Between Gorbachev and an Impersonator
Trump Files #22: His Football Team Treated Its Cheerleaders “Like Hookers”
Trump Files #23: Donald Tried to Shut Down a Bike Race Named “Rump”
Trump Files #24: When Donald Called Out Pat Buchanan for Bigotry
Trump Files #25: Donald’s Most Ridiculous Appearance on Howard Stern’s Show
Trump Files #26: How Donald Tricked New York Into Giving Him His First Huge Deal
Trump Files #27: Donald Told Congress the Reagan Tax Cuts Were Terrible
Trump Files #28: When Donald Destroyed Historic Art to Build Trump Tower
Trump Files #29: Donald Wanted to Build an Insane Castle on Madison Avenue
Trump Files #30: Donald’s Near-Death Experience (That He Invented)
Trump Files #31: When Donald Struck Oil on the Upper West Side
Trump Files #32: When Donald Massacred Trees in the Trump Tower Lobby
Trump Files #33: The Time Donald Sued Someone Who Made Fun of Him for $500 Million
Trump Files #34: Donald Tried to Make His Ghostwriter Pay for His Book Party
Trump Files #35: Watch Donald Shave a Man’s Head on Television
Trump Files #36: How Donald Helped Make It Harder to Get Football Tickets
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The Trump Files: Donald Was Curious About His Baby Daughter’s Breasts
Mother Jones
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Jack Shafer is unhappy about calls to stop giving Donald Trump the attention he so obviously craves:
Ever since Donald Trump appeared on Campaign 2016’s horizon, journalists have been imploring other journalists not to cover him….The logic behind the Trump blackout proposals vary, but usually boils down to this: Any attention given to his retrograde “ideas” only end up giving his candidacy additional velocity. But just because Trump is a potential menace to society…why does that mean TV should give him the blind eye? The more hateful and demagogic a politician the more you should cover him, right?
….The working premise behind the Trump ban seems to be that journalists should avoid stories that have a potential to make things “worse” (i.e., increase Trump support) and instead produce stories that have a potential to make things “better” (i.e., a decrease in Trump support). But a journalist’s primary duty isn’t to produce stories that push history in the “correct” direction—whatever that is—or to self-censor anything that might possibly encourage a “bad” outcome. Sometimes newsgathering stimulates a happy result, but it’s not the only way to judge the worthiness of a story.
In order to write this piece, Shafer needed someone to call for a ban on Trump coverage. And finally, a few days ago, someone did: former CNN anchor Campbell Brown wrote a piece suggesting a one-week boycott of Trump coverage. To my ears, Brown’s proposal sounded a bit Swiftian, but no matter. It gave Shafer the chance to write an easy column making the obvious case against banning Trump.
But why write an easy column? Why not wrestle with the real issue: the fantastic overcoverage of Trump on cable news? I doubt that any candidate in history running in a genuinely contested primary has gotten the kind of lopsided coverage Trump has. In the past month, he’s gotten more coverage than every other Republican candidate combined. In the past week, he’s gotten an astonishing 3x the coverage of every other candidate combined. Forget about whether this is good for America. Doesn’t it demonstrate some seriously flawed news judgment within the press corps? As though news outlets are more interested in sensationalism and ratings than in reporting what’s genuinely newsworthy? That’s debatable, for sure, but it’s exactly the kind of debate a press critic should weigh in on.
But Shafer cavalierly waves this off: “The notion that the press has dreadfully overcovered or tragically undercovered a topic is the idiot’s version of press criticism. No perfect dose of journalism can be prescribed for every subject. But if you still think that the TV news operations are overcovering Donald Trump, I have a simple suggestion. Unplug your television instead of asking the news channels to turn off their cameras.”
Well, then, call me an idiot. Shafer is right that partisans routinely think their guy is undercovered and the other side’s guy is overcovered. In this case, though, the evidence is overwhelming that Trump is getting vastly more coverage than any serious assessment of his news value justifies. And turning off my TV doesn’t change this, any more than turning off my TV will end poverty or put ISIS out of business.
Shafer is too sharp to waste his time on straw men. Instead, how about a look at why the press corps is so smitten with Trump? Is it because he’s a godsend for campaign reporters who love easy stories that save them from having to dive into tedious stuff like taxes and abortion and all the other chestnuts we argue fruitlessly about every four years? Is it because news directors crave ratings far more than news value? Or is it because Donald Trump somehow justifies the coverage he’s getting? If so, let’s hear the argument. I don’t know if this is likely to win the morning or not, but now that we’ve reached the point where Trump is getting 75 percent of all cable news coverage, isn’t it a question worth asking?
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Mother Jones
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Yo La Tengo: Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, James McNew Jacob Blickenstaff
Coming out of the close-knit music community of late-1980s Hoboken, New Jersey, Yo La Tengo was the product of the romantic and musical relationship between guitarist and music journalist Ira Kaplan and drummer Georgia Hubley, the daughter of well-known animation producers John and Faith Hubley. With help from a rotating cast of supporting musicians, the husband-and-wife duo released four albums, including their 1990 breakout, Fakebook, before bassist James McNew came on board as a permanent and stabilizing member.
Last month, Yo La Tengo released its 14th album, Stuff Like That There, which serves as a companion of sorts to Fakebook. Both albums draw on an eclectic mix of covers as well as remakes of the band’s previously recorded songs. Guitarist Dave Schramm also returns to lend his guitar work.
Active for more than 30 years, the band owes its staying power to its ability to absorb and integrate a vast range of influences. Stuff Like That There singles out and connects some of those myriad points of reference—including The Cure, the outsider doo-wop of Sun Ra, and Yo La Tengo’s 1980s alt-rock contemporaries Antietam—to reveal the band’s musical center. I visited with the trio at their Hoboken rehearsal space.
Mother Jones: How did the thematic similarity between Stuff Like That There and Fakebook come to pass?
Ira Kaplan: We’ve been asked a lot over the years about doing another album like Fakebook. When people ask you to do stuff, it’s not your idea anymore, so it’s tough to get behind it. But over time, we started realizing that that didn’t make it a bad idea.
MJ: Reinterpreting and re-recording your own songs is something you’ve done on other albums, too. Do you think that’s unusual?
IK: It may be unusual-ish. James was just listening to Country Joe and the Fish—all the San Francisco bands were very free with the interpretations of their material. If you listen to Jefferson Airplane’s God Bless Its Pointed Little Head, the live versions of their old songs don’t sound much like the studio versions. The Velvet Underground’s live versions changed constantly. And as Beatles bootlegs keep surfacing, you hear all the different sketches and ways they approached things, so it’s always felt pretty natural for us.
MJ: When Georgia and Ira created Yo La Tengo, you guys were very much amateur musicians.
IK: I still feel like an amateur! I remember being in college and taking a class on classical music and getting a big laugh when I said very sincerely that I was not really into trained voices. Some of the greatest singers can transcend their technical perfection and still sound great.
Georgia Hubley: They have to get over that stumbling block of talent!
MJ: You seems always to be evolving, yet Yo La Tengo maintains a consistent core identity. Is that deliberate? Like, are there parameters that you follow?
IK: I don’t think there are really that many rules. We are willing to change, and we’re willing not to, but we just try to be listening. This has been a crazy year. Every time we play live, it feels diametrically opposed to how we played the last time. We’ve been playing with different people and different configurations, and just allowing those things to happen. At the same time, we’re consciously going back in time and playing with Dave Schramm again to just see what that would be like.
MJ: The band began as a duo, with other musicians coming in and out. How did James’ involvement change things?
IK: We thought we had a band, but when James joined, it was, “Oh, I see! This is a band!” Everything we do now, even though we had four records before he joined, traces back to when he joined. May I Sing With Me was the first record he plays on, but with Painful, I think that’s when we were really a band for the first time.
MJ: Did it feel natural when you began, James, or did you find it tough to integrate?
JM: There’s a Halloween episode of The Simpsons where Homer goes back in time. If he touches one thing and then flashes back to the present, everything is different. I didn’t want to do that in the band. I was a fan; I already thought they were doing great. It was like, “Don’t touch anything! Don’t ruin that band you like!” So I tried to find that spot where I felt, “I didn’t ruin things today? Let’s move it a little further.” I’m still toeing that line. But it was natural in a sense of our personalities. The first day we practiced together, we spent just as much time discussing Second City Television episodes as we did playing music.
MJ: Georgia and Ira, how do you keep your marriage from interfering with the business of the band?
IK: It’s pretty jumbled, and it is a challenge. But I feel like it has to be that way when you are passionate about your work—as opposed to waiting until five o’clock so you can do the things you really care about. Like James mentioned about SCTV, there is a gray line. Like, what is band practice? These things just work their way in. That goes back to being receptive, and being confident that the experiences you are having are going to find their way into what you’re doing. It’s not a matter of “We gotta learn that bridge today!” Things happen more formlessly.
MJ: How would you say your dynamic has changed since you first started playing?
IK: I think there’s less panic, and more acceptance that not everything is going to go the way that you thought it might. We are much more accepting of the days, or the weeks, when nothing we really liked happens. Or we’ll like something and try to play it again and find that it’s gone. I think there was a lot more anxiety about that in the past. Now it’s more like, “Oh well, that’s part of it.”
GH: We always are learning something, whether its, “Let’s not do that again,” or “How do we make that better?” Making music is really fun. Some of the other stuff can get to you, but I think we do a pretty good job of riding it out.
MJ: What other stuff?
JM: Everything but music!
GH: Everything else is terrible!
JM: There’s an actual physiological thing that happens to me on tour. There’s that moment where I sit in my seat and click the seatbelt, and five seconds later I fall asleep. There’s the excitement, and I guess anxiety, about what the shows will be like, but it’s overwhelmed by, “Thank God, here we go!” It’s letting go of all that other shit I had to do to get to this moment. It’s done—or at least it can’t touch me until we land.
MJ: So, to what do you attribute Yo La Tengo’s longevity?
IK: We managed to not ever be part of a movement. Even “indie” is a word we run from—that word is so amorphous. We’ve never been trendy, so consequently we’ve never fallen out of fashion. We didn’t have a hit, so we’ve never been locked into anything. As far as we know, maybe we are locked in somewhere from a few years ago in other peoples’ perceptions. Maybe we’re too stupid to know it.
GH: Or delusional? I think it’s probably a good thing.
MJ: Is there anything about your group temperament that allows you to keep going?
IK: We were never a group that thrived on volatility. We just don’t work well calling each other out, saying, “That sucks!” Some sports teams hate each other in the locker room and that’s what makes them great, but we’re not that team.
We did a show recently in Spain where the sound on stage was miserable and no one knew what to do about it. Georgia stopped a song that had begun, which is not the response anyone was expecting, even Georgia. There’s no question in my mind that if that had happened years ago, the band’s response and my response would have been so much worse. We just kept going. It didn’t derail the show in ways that it would have. It wasn’t even something I had to reflect on later.
JM: Mindfulness in action. When you’re in the audience and you’re seeing a band and shit’s falling apart, that’s thrilling! But when it’s happening to you, you think, “This sucks! I hope nobody is seeing this.”
IK: Even if we do look awful, it was a human moment. But it’s not always easy, seeing yourself.
GH: This trip we just did was fairly difficult. We were on this bill with a lot of bands, and it was very hard to connect to the audience. It’s a strange way to feel when you’re about to pour your heart out—to get on stage and feel like, “Does this matter to anyone?”
JM: I was reacting to the same feeling, that there are some people who aren’t watching the show. I thought, “Okay, so this is for us.” It was a really beautiful, emotional feeling—just joyful: I love doing this so much, and I hope you do too. I left with a smile. Or something close to a smile. I was very tired.
You can catch Yo La Tengo at their upcoming tour dates in the United States and Japan. They’ll also be appearing at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival and Big Ears Festival in early 2016.
Original article –
Mother Jones
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Donald Trump, the tycoon now leading the GOP presidential pack, made more money selling mattresses last year than twice the total net worth of Marco Rubio.
Last week Trump announced he had filed the details of his personal finances, as all presidential candidates must, and was worth “in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS” (his emphasis). On Wednesday, his financial disclosure form was released by the Federal Election Commission, and it backs up his bluster. It also tells the complicated—and entertaining—story of Trump’s financial life.
Trump’s net worth does appear to be in the billions, though he owes hundreds of millions of dollars to creditors. The total amount of his liabilities is not provided in this disclosure. Government regulations do not not require him to specify the actual amount of any liability over $50 million, but he does list four liabilities in excess of that sum. The minimum amount for his total debt is $270 million, but he could owe far more than that. A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately reply to a query asking if Trump would reveal the full extent of his debt.
Trump doesn’t own every building around the world that bears his name. On his financial disclosure form, he reports licensing fees for buildings in the Philippines, Turkey, and Panama. Yet he does appear to own many of the buildings and properties, and some provide huge incomes for him. The Trump National Doral golf course in Florida, which he valued at more than $50 million, seems to be the most lucrative of his properties, earning Trump $49.4 million last year.
Originally posted here:
Donald Trump Just Released His Personal Finances—and, Oh Boy…
Mother Jones
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A few days ago the Hallmark Channel decided to present us with a showing of kitten baseball. We recorded it, since you never know when a few minutes of zoning out in front of adorable kittens might be just what you need. But it turned out that Hopper was fascinated. She stared at the kittens on the screen, then moved closer, then jumped up on the cabinet to get an even closer look. Unfortunately, the light was bad and I couldn’t get any good pictures.
The next day I tried again in the morning light. But this time Hopper was busy with other feline priorities, while Hilbert, who had sat around like a furry, bored medicine ball the night before, suddenly took over. He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. And that’s how you see him today, staring avidly at an orange-and-white kitten on the television. Now that’s cat TV.
Original source:
Mother Jones
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In the first public admission that its reality television shows have strayed into the land of bizarre fakes and fabrications, the new boss at Discovery Channel has pledged to restore the network’s documentary credibility with viewers—saying fake programming has “run its course,” and is “not right for us.”
The move is a major change for Discovery Communications, owner of the Discovery Channel. The group also owns a host of other networks, including Animal Planet and TLC, which have attracted criticism for the mistreatment of animals and for elaborately staging reality programs.
During a recent press conference in Pasadena, California, new president Rich Ross addressed the controversy surrounding a series of outlandishly scripted programs.
Rich Ross, Discovery Channel’s new president, speaking at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on January 8 Discovery Communications
One example: Megalodon: The New Evidence, screened during 2014’s “Shark Week,” which claimed that the largest predatory shark that ever lived is still alive (it’s not—some scientists were portrayed by actors). Another show, Eaten Alive, promised to show a man being swallowed whole by an anaconda (he eventually wasn’t—he called off the eating part in front of the cameras). It was widely slammed by critics for making false claims about the show’s content, and by wildlife advocates for harassing the snake and promoting fear.
At the Pasadena event, Ross was just 72 hours into the job, but he wasted no time in outlining his new priorities: “If there was one word, it would be ‘authentic,'” which would be a filter for “everything we have on the air,” he told reporters last Thursday.
Discussing Discovery programming like Megalodon—and a similar show on Animal Planet that purported to find evidence of real life mermaids—Ross said it was time for his channel to switch gears: “It’s not whether I’m a fan of it. I don’t think it’s actually right for Discovery Channel, and it’s something that I think has, in some ways, run its course,” he said, according to a transcript.
In the question-and-answer session, Ross was challenged to address concerns that Discovery programming has directly misled the public. One journalist asked, “Do you have plans to try to repair relationships with scientists, educators, and other people who felt like those shows were—besides the fact that they were betraying Discovery’s mission, were giving false information to people?”
Ross pointed to his recent appointment of a distinguished 17-year veteran of HBO and multiple Emmy Award-winner, John Hoffman, as executive vice president of documentaries and specials, calling it a commitment to returning to the land of truth-telling documentaries.
And what about Eaten Alive? “I don’t believe you’ll be seeing a person eaten by a snake during my time,” he said, to laughter. Ross also wants to distance the channel from shows like Skyscraper Live With Nik Wallenda, which drew 10.7 million viewers to watch live as a man tightrope-walked between two Chicago skyscrapers. “We can do things that are live, but we don’t have to make it as much of a sideshow type event,” Variety reported him as saying.
Ross declined to be interviewed for this article.
His comments were welcomed by some outspoken critics of Discovery’s scientific programming, including David Shiffman, a marine biologist, who has made a name for himself on social media by campaigning publicly for years to get Discovery to change its ways.
“It’s exciting that they’re finally listening to concerns that have been expressed by so many people,” Shiffman said in a phone interview. “By scientists, by conservationists, by educators who have had to deal with the consequences of the completely made-up documentaries.”
But Shiffman warned there’s still along way to go across the entire organization. “There are lots of other problems with recent Discovery shows,” he said, including “fear-mongering instead of facts” and “a promotion of wildlife harassment.” He said he’ll be watching the lineup for 2015’s Shark Week closely to see if Ross’s promises have been implemented.
Our complete coverage of animal mistreatment behind the scenes at Animal Planet
Drugs, Death, Neglect: Behind the Scenes at Animal Planet
Animal Planet Star Was Warned He Was Breaking the Law
How a Coyote Suffered Behind the Scenes at Animal Planet
Viewers are Furious With Animal Planet for Mistreating Animals on “Reality TV”
Animal Planet’s “Call of the Wildman” Abruptly Canceled in Canada
Animal Planet’s Turtleman Returns to Air Despite Damning Federal Investigation
Ratings of Animal Planet Show Nosedive After MoJo Exposé
The issue of faked and fraudulent shows is not limited to Discovery Channel. For Mother Jones, I’ve written a series of investigative articles about Call of the Wildman on Animal Planet, Discovery Channel’s sister station. My reporting documented evidence of the show’s mistreatment of animals, including the drugging of a zebra, and the deliberate trapping of wildlife for elaborately staged and scripted scenes; the reporting called into question the show’s legality under federal and state animal welfare laws, and has since attracted an ongoing probe by USDA officials. At the time of my reporting into Call of the Wildman, Discovery Communications representatives and production staff fervently defended Animal Planet’s treatment of animals, denying any harm was done.
It will be an uphill battle for reform inside Discovery, both the channel and its parent organization, says Chris Palmer, the director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at the American University School of Communication. Ross “will face a lot of internal opposition because the drive for ratings is still there in the culture of the organization,” he said. Previously, Palmer says, “the senior people have defended vigorously what they’ve done and have painstakingly ignored criticism.”
While the channel has “burned a lot of bridges, I am cautiously optimistic for the future,” said Shiffman, the marine biologist. “But they have a lot more that they need to do to earn back our trust and respect.”
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Discovery Channel: Now With More Facts, Fewer Snakes Eating Humans
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White Dwarf Issue 39: 25 October 2014 – White Dwarf
Gaze upon them and risk madness – the Glottkin have come. We introduce the favoured of Nurgle to the world. Can there be now any hope for the Empire? Read all about the Glottkin and see them in their incredible photographic glory. The End Times are begun, and we have it all: a stonking Battle […]
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The Back to Basics Handbook – Abigail R. Gehring
Anyone who wants to learn basic living skillsthe kind employed by our forefathersand adapt them for a better life in the twenty-first century need look no further than this eminently useful, full-color guide. With hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, photographs, charts, and illustrations, The Back to Basics Handbook will help you dye your own wool […]
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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo
This best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes […]
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Following Atticus – Tom Ryan
After a close friend died of cancer, middle-aged, overweight, acrophobic newspaperman Tom Ryan decided to pay tribute to her in a most unorthodox manner. Ryan and his friend, miniature schnauzer Atticus M. Finch, would attempt to climb all forty-eight of New Hampshire’s four thousand- foot peaks twice in one winter while raising money for charity. […]
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Top Dog – Maria Goodavage
The New York Times bestselling author of Soldier Dogs returns with the incredible story of K-9 Marine hero Lucca, and the handlers who fought alongside her through two bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Top Dog , Maria Goodavage takes readers into the life of Lucca K458, a decorated and highly skilled military working […]
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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete
For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America’s most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of […]
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Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz
The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think, now in paperback. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and […]
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Marley & Me – John Grogan
The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life. Now with photos and new material
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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier
From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, […]
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Saddled – Susan Richards
One day, at the age of thirty-one, Susan Richards realized that she was an alcoholic. She wrote it down in her journal, struck by the fact that it had taken nine years of waking up hung-over to name her illness. What had changed? Susan had a new horse, a spirited Morgan named Georgia, and, as […]
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Source article:
Ethiopia “regreens” degraded land. Plans to restore 15m more hectares by 2030.
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