The Discovery Channel is drawing fire after airing a documentary that is closer to science fiction than science fact.
On Sunday, the network kicked off Shark Week—their annual (and immensely popular) block of programs showcasing everyone’s favorite aquatic predator—with a program called Megalodon: The Monster Shark That Lives.
It sounds like a great premise. With a maximum length of 60 feet and teeth the size of butchers’ knives, the megalodon (not pictured at right) is one of history’s most fearsome predators. There’s only one problem: Despite what the show’s title may claim, this “monster shark” has been extinct for more than one million years.
Those watching the “documentary,” however, were not burdened with such inconvenient truths. Instead, Discovery hired actors to play marine biologists on a hunt for the megalodon around the coast of South Africa. Their expedition is mounted following the release of (faked) footage showing a fishing vessel taken down by a massive sea-dwelling predator (nicknamed “submarine”).
More fabricated “evidence” supporting the creature’s existence is presented, including a whale whose tail has been bitten off by an unknown animal, and a Coast Guard video showing a giant, shark-like shape moving through the water.
Looks like Discovery does the same thing to sharks that it does to things biblical. The Discovery Channel’s new motto should be: We’re Just Like Wikipedia: You Can’t Trust Anything we Say!
Zwinglius Redivivus 
The sub heading “The popular network has found great success in airing shows that mislead and misinform’ sums it all up, one day Jesus shtick, next day sharks. Only difference is that in the latter, actors played the part of scientists whereas it in biblical arch. there are no stand ins just biblical ‘scholars’ passing themselves off as archaeologists. In a sense, perhaps they too are acting for fame and fortune.
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