As always, I find that the networks of Discovery Channel tend to be less informational and more tabloid.
They’re showing a ridiculous program on Travel Channel right now, “Most Haunted Live!” from London. First question: why in the world is this on Travel Channel?
Next question: does Discovery have any credibility left? They try to position themselves as a psuedo-educational network, but their programming more often then not is about UFOs, the paranormal, and sharks. This is what’s so ridiculous about conservatives who claim that Discovery duplicates PBS programming and therefore PBS should be eliminated.
I watched a little of this silly program, where a bunch of people are sitting in the dark, videotaped by low-light cameras, using a Ouija board. Gee, the glass moved! It must be a spirit! Hmm, the spirit must be tired… ‘cos when the leader of this group took her finger off the glass, it stopped moving. Surely only a coincidence, right? They’re in Tower Bridge, and when a hanging piece of flotsam starts to slowly swing, they assume it must be a spirit… not the thousands of cars passing above them on the bascule.
I enjoy the silliness of paranormal nonsense, and the pleasing creeps it causes. But I worry when people start to think that it’s real, that it is a science of some sort. And for this program to be on a Discovery channel rather than, say, the SciFi channel is just really annoying.
Other than the shining beacon that is Samantha Brown, I’m so often disappointed with the Travel Channel. It never seems to deliver practical and interesting travel information, which is the very thing I want to see on a so-called travel channel. Give me the old guard of PBS travel shows any day.
Oh my god – people really say PBS should be eliminated because there’s the Discovery Channel? I saw a huge difference the last time I had cable and actually watched the Discovery channel, and that was in 1998!! (I haven’t bothered w/ cable television since then.)
And apparently it’s only gotten more sensationalistic since then.
And that’s what it’s about…
Sharks are very popular.
Not a whole lot of big businesses are going to advertise on a show like FRONTLINE, let’s face it.