Mermaid Hoax? Animal Planet Fake Documentary Angers Duped Viewers

[davidn3600]

An Animal Planet faux-documentary on mermaids, "Mermaids: The New Evidence," has angered some viewers, who feel they were fooled by the hoax's realistic-looking production techniques. The special was a follow-up to last year's "docufiction" special "Mermaids: The Body Found," which proved a ratings hit with the cable channel, and this year's follow-up garnered about 3.6 million viewers. It played it straight for nearly the entire duration of the special before revealing that what viewers had been watching was fictive. Some viewers took to Twitter to express their indignation, including some who appear to take exception to the implication that mermaids were in fact not real.

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Others showed their concern that despite the disclaimer at the end of the documentary, the public could end up being misled. Andrew David Thaler, who writes for Southernfriedscience.com and describes himself as a "deep-sea biologist, population/conservation geneticist, and backyard farm advocate," wrote of the special, "It's not satire. It's not parody. It's a giant middle finger to the public"

The Los Angeles Times noted that the special marked a departure from Animal Planet's usual reality programming and quoted the channel's president and general manager Marjorie Kaplan, who called it "a watershed -- and a watercooler -- moment for Animal Planet."

http://www.latintimes.com/articles/4616/20130530/mermaid-hoax-animal-planet-documentary-twitter-reactions.htm

[Archaic]

1. 3.6 Million viewers. 'Nuff said.

We'll get another 50 of those shows now on every network.

SyFy, History, TLC, the Weather Channel, the NHL network and Home Shopping Zone would produce baloney like this to get at 1% of the population of the USA.

[davidn3600]

4. Thing is, you'd expect this to be on Sci-Fi channel....not Animal Planet

That's what is making people mad at this. Animal Planet is supposed to deal with real science.

[Archaic]

5. The Learning Channel is supposed to deal with Learning. Honey Boo Boo isn't learning.

The Sci-Fi channel is dead. It's SyFy now, and was showing pro-wrestling for a while there.

Channel names mean nothing now. The Weather Channel goes hours without showing weather.

CNN/HNN goes months without showing news.

FoxNews? Ok, too easy.

[freshwest]

9. Yep, they're all mixed and shoveling garbage now.

[HiPointDem]

2. i think tv is on a mission to make people really stupid. even in the days of 'beverly hillbillies'

they at least had realistic science news and documentaries.

the only conclusion you can draw from the crap on cable is that they want to turn people into credulous ignoramuses.

it can be done in a generation. it's scary.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Televison"

is a book I read years ago by Jerry Mander, who is now executive director of the International Forum on Globalization.
His points remain very valid, IMHO.

Sone good interviews with him are on YouTube.

[randome]

20. Too much competition means a race to the bottom.

It's easier to just be lazy.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[HiPointDem]

21. it's not laziness.

[randome]

23. I think it's easier for the stations.

It's easier to shoot a 'reality show' or a 'docudrama' for quick viewer hits rather than buy quality shows or produce something of quality on your own.

I wonder how much of this mermaid show was simply people talking to the cameras. The special effects were likely minimal.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[HiPointDem]

24. that's money, not laziness. cheaper, more profitable.

[Mopar151]

3. Mrs. Mopar had it on. What a pantload.

Ms. Kaplan needs her head examined.

[Raine]

6. I don't know how anyone could fall for that kind of crap but people fell for War of the Worlds

too. There's no shortage of the gullable or those who take them in.

[gordianot]

7. They should have saved it for April first then they might have a defense.

I watched some of it and looked for the disclaimer and turned it off before the disclaimer. Obvious hoax. I do enjoy the various specials depicting generated images of dinosaurs and large land animals, no wonder a large part of the public views evolution as a hoax when you go this far.

[MADem]

8. They showed a rerun at the asscrack of dawn....

It was stupid. It had "infomercial" production values. Anyone who was conned by that--especially the goofy "Youtube" footage--deserves to be duped.

[Aviation Pro]

10. Teh stupid...

...is strong in the U.S. Thanks Republicants, you walking wads of phlegm.

[eShirl]

11. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for the gullible

but I doubt it. Some people will believe anything.

[LostOne4Ever]

13. People

People actually thought that it could be real? Really? Really Really?

Faith in humanity falling.

[SidDithers]

14. Magical thinking and belief in woo is endemic...

It's no surprise that so many credulous viewers were taken in, because their "open minds" lack any ability to think critically.

DU is no exception to this phenomenon. Have you seen some of the woo shit posted in GD this past month?

Sid

[zappaman]

39. Well, crop circles are still unexplained...

And did you see the rat on Mars?
Do you think it lives there or somehow hitched a ride?

[SidDithers]

50. I think they're related...

Crop circles are actually made by Martian rats.

It's twoo! It's twoo!!

Sid

[zappaman]

51. The bigger question is...

where was this martian rat on November 22, 1963?
And how is it connected to the BFEE???

[Kali]

59. it got flung up there by a wind turbine

[MrScorpio]

15. I didn't watch it be because I knew that it was bullshit

P.T. Barnum was right all along.

[hatrack]

16. "Mermaids: The New Evidence"? WTF did people expect?

I just hope they were able to work in Hitler, Nostradamus and Roswell as well!

[Phentex]

33. It does make you wonder...

how can you feel duped about something that doesn't exist?

Up next: Unicorn Habitats

[Puzzledtraveller]

17. This has been debunked, Daryl Hannah has legs

[piratefish08]

18. they had a similar show on a year ago that was debunked at the time. this was a follow up show.

people fell for this horse shit TWICE.

[sufrommich]

19. Gosh,it's almost hard to believe they fudged the

the "facts" about mermaids,or UFOs,or Atlantis, or Big Foot, or haunted houses, or the Loch Ness monster,or fill in the woo of your choice. These shows will continue until people start changing the channel,unfortunately, that probably isn't going to happen.

[forestpath]

22. Why are mermaids "woo" but God isn't, when there is zero evidence for either?

[darkangel218]

29. Meemeids dont have churches yet. Start one

[forestpath]

31. Fuck no. I just find double standards hypocritical.

[ellenfl]

36. i bet fundamentalist christians thought it was real. eom

[dembotoz]

25. we have expectation of our vairous channels-perhaps if this was aired on april 1st.

[Octafish]

26. Imagine how Democrats feel?

Unicorns were the least of what failed to materialize.

[4Q2u2]

28. Shh!

You just gave out the secret of the next great expose'. Unicorns and Fairy dust, Animal Planet is on the trail and will soon have evidence. They attached a mini cam to Big Foot and have footage of Unicorns dancing in the woods.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

47. as one of my favorite quotes go

Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great and mystical powers.
We know this because they are capable of being both invisible and pink at the same time...
The religion of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based on both faith and logic.
Faith tells us that they are pink; through logic, we know that they are invisible...

[chelsea0011]

27. I watched this and knew it couldn't be real but Bigfoot, he's real.

[Buzz Clik]

30. I watched the women's NCAA softball championship opening round while playing Angry Birds.

I came out ahead.

[Viking12]

32. It needed more UFOs and Giorgio A. Tsoukalos

[cbdo2007]

34. We had a group of people talking about this at work and they turned it off before

the disclaimer so they all still think it's real.

[ellenfl]

35. 'fictive'? i didn't look but i hope this guy is not an accredited journalist.

enough already with the fake words! the word he wanted is 'fictitious'. we really are turning into idiocrats, to use another fake word.

[hatrack]

49. "Fictive" . . . "Factoid" . . . the bullshit tides climbs slowly, but ever higher . . .

[bike man]

55. Fictive looks like a real word here ->

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fictive

adj.
1. Of, relating to, or able to engage in imaginative invention.
2. Of, relating to, or being fiction; fictional.
3. Not genuine; sham

Notice how often people will use words with the suffix 'ic' appended - workaholic, chocoholic, etc. If the suffix is attached to 'alcohol', a rough meaning is 'one who is involved with alcohol'. Alcohol is a real word, workahol and chocohol are not.

Fictive looks real enough to me, and to the many other links provided by a search of the word.

[ellenfl]

57. i stand corrected. eom

[Sissyk]

37. They were talking about this on the radio show

I listen to on the way to work this week. People calling in from all over that actually believed the mermaids were real.

That was the first I had heard of the Animal Planet show but they sure fooled a bunch of people. I couldn't believe how many got angry with the host of the show when they laughed at the "believers".

[zappaman]

38. It was fake????

I can't believe it was faked!!!
Everyone and all of the footage seemed so real!
Guess you can't trust anything these days!
Next, you will be telling me Jesus did not ride any dinosaurs...

[randome]

40. Did they have navels? If not, then it was clearly fake.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[zappaman]

41. Why would mermaids have navels?

Ridiculous.

[randome]

43. Then how do you account for Ariel, huh? Huh? Can't answer that, can you?

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[Apophis]

42. The public, in general, is stupid.

Good god.

[bike man]

56. True that. There have been many DU OPs taken from the Onion that caused severe outrage

right here.

Even with the link clearly posted.

[eppur_se_muova]

44. And was thoroughly dissed on DU when it first appeared months ago.

Can't believe they reran it.

[sakabatou]

45. As Dr. Farnsworth said...

[Rex]

46. After watching the History Channel destroy history

these other channels decided that they could just fabricate the truth out of whole cloth. Hey, the M$M does it DAILY...so they figured nobody would notice.

[derby378]

48. To quote the late L. Ron Hubbard...

"MONEY! REPEAT MONEY! REPEAT MONEY! REPEAT MONEY!"

[bunnies]

52. Angry?

hah. They shouldnt be angry. They should be embarrassed. Hopelessly, painfully, embarrassed. Idiots.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

53. The more things change.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)

Some listeners heard only a portion of the broadcast and, in the atmosphere of tension and anxiety prior to World War II, took it to be an actual news broadcast.[1] Newspapers reported that panic ensued, with people across the Northeastern United States and Canada fleeing their homes. Some people called CBS, newspapers or the police in confusion over the realism of the news bulletins.[6][7]

Future Tonight Show host Jack Paar had announcing duties that night for Cleveland CBS affiliate WGAR. As panicked listeners called the studio, Paar attempted to calm them on the phone and on air by saying, "The world is not coming to an end. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?" When the listeners started charging Paar with "covering up the truth", he called WGAR's station manager for help. Oblivious to the situation, the manager advised Paar to calm down, saying it was "all a tempest in a teapot."[8]

In Concrete, Washington, phone lines and electricity went out due to a short-circuit at the Superior Portland Cement Company's substation. Residents were unable to call neighbors, family or friends to calm their fears. Reporters who heard of the coincidental blackout sent the story over the news-wire, and soon Concrete was known worldwide.[9]

Within one month, newspapers had published 12,500 articles about the broadcast and its impact. Adolf Hitler cited the panic, as Richard J. Hand writes, as "evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy."[10]

[davidn3600]

54. There was a made-for-TV movie back in the early 1990s that did the same thing

It was called, "Without Warning." and mimicked a live news broadcast of the Earth being hit by asteroids. It was as if you were watching the news.

Even though they flashed text on the bottom of the screen whenever coming back from commercial that the movie is fiction, some people really did think it was real.

[spanone]

58. which proves people believe the talking box regardless of the stupidity of the subject

hence the teaparty

[Honeycombe8]

60. It was a hoax? I saw the beginning but not the end, so I didn't see the hoax part.

But really, the beginning made it clear that these were controversial theories, and it was discussed as theory. Are you saying even the part about it being controversial theory was a hoax itself?