Sir David Attenborough yesterday defended Frozen Planet's fake polar bear footage – by comparing BBC nature documentaries to movies. His blunt remarks came as more footage from the series was exposed as a sham. In a surprising justification for duping millions of viewers, the TV star argued that owning up to splicing archive film with real Arctic scenes during the programme would have spoiled the mood.
His blunt remarks came as more footage from the series was exposed as a sham. Speaking after our exclusive story yesterday revealed shots of a polar bear and her newborn cubs were staged in a zoo using fake snow, Sir David, 85, said: "The question is, during the middle of this scene when you are trying to paint what it is like in the middle of winter at the pole, to say 'Oh, by the way, this was filmed in a zoo'.
"It ruins the atmosphere, and destroys the pleasure of the viewers and destroys the atmosphere you are trying to create. "It's not a falsehood and we don't keep it secret either. But to say actually in the middle of that sequence, I mean how far do you take this?
"Do you say this is a penguin, but actually it was a different penguin colony than this one and this one is a different one? Come on, we were making movies." It yesterday emerged BBC producers also misled viewers about footage of a frozen caterpillar in hit seven-part series Frozen Planet.
To some, the fakery itself may be of interest, as the BBC has been caught out before as regards polar bears. Not so long ago, the BBC used artistic license to imply polar bears were apparently stranded on icebergs without showing nearby ice shoals. Former US Vice-President Al Gore used similar footage to imply polar bears were trapped on icebergs when they were not.
To me, the issue is a much larger one, and that's what I want to examine in this article. There is an important point here: The Internet (and even its attached mainstream media such as the Daily Mirror) is making it extremely difficult for the Anglosphere power elite's dominant social themes to catch hold the way they did in the 20th century.
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