Sadism for Kids: The National Geographic Channel. I have been repeatedly stunned by the cruelty, viciousness, and outrite sadism that fills the National Geographic Society's cable service. Parents need to know that the people who control that channel fill it with images that could be deeply disturbing to children, and BLOCK IT to prevent their kids from being psychologically damaged by hideous images of animals being ripped to shreds, eaten alive, and otherwise brutalized by National Geographic's version of "Mother Nature", and by stories about people being killed, individually and in groups, by animals, natural disasters, and other people.
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Nature can be harsh, we know, but an endless, almost unrelievedly negative litany of nature's harshness is not what parents expect their children to see when they tune into the National Geographic Channel ("NGC"). Here's a sample of the schedule, this lazy, carefree Sunday afternoon, when kids are out of school and free to watch hours of TV:

1:00-2:00pm  Nature's Nightmares (a major NGC series): "Elephants: The Dark Side". Violent elephants that sometimes kill mahouts and other people. Sample anecdotes: a mahout is impaled on an elephant's tusk and tossed about, surviving only by luck. Farmers are attacked and killed "every week". A mahout is pulled apart, like Solomon's threat to chop a baby in half. A wild Indian elephant has killed 30 people. A circus elephant in Hawaii is shown mauling his trainer, then being shot repeatedly by police, until it dies. Child-friendly stuff, huh?
3:00-4:00pm  "Expeditions to the Edge: Trapped Diver." "Divers face tragic consequences when they plunge into the icy waters of New Zealand's cave system."
4:00-5:00pm  Seconds from Disaster (another NGC series): "Disco Bombing", about the terrorist attack on a Balinese discotheque that killed 188 people. Fun viewing! Watch intently kids. Enjoy!
6:00-7:00pm  "Spontaneous Human Combustion": "Paranormal investigators, forensic biologists, physicists and fire experts try to explain why a body would suddenly burst into flames." Hey, Junior. You'd better watch out, or you'll burst into flames and die in agony!
7:00-8:00pm  "Bermuda Triangle:" "Ships and aircrafts are said to vanish without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle." Hey, kids, let's take a trip!
8:00-9:00pm Explorer (another major NGC series): "Collapse." My cable service's listings give nothing but the bare title here, so I'm not sure as to exactly what is "collapsing" here. Let's check the NGC website. Oh, here it is: "Delve into the world of structural engineering to examine some of the world's most terrible structural disasters." Oh, Buffy honey, watch the buildings fall down and kill people!
9:00-10:00pm  Seconds from Disaster (another episode in this major NGC series): "The Bomb in Oklahoma City." 'Nuff said?
10:00pm-11:00pm Explorer (another episode in this major NGC series): "Inside Shock & Awe", "a probing, behind-the-scenes look at the all-out air offensive that launched Operation Iraqi Freedom."

And on, and on, and on. Hour after hour, day after day, the monsters at National Geographic delite in death, destruction, and cruelty, both animal and human: infotainment for Nazis.
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All parents should block the National Geographic Channel from viewing by anyone under 18, and indeed should probably recommend that even older kids/young adults avoid the constant stream of sadism that, for reasons I do not understand, an ostensibly legitimate educational organization supposedly devoted to the "diffusion of geographical knowledge" spews out over cable and its website.
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The current leaders of the National Geographic Society are apparently twisted, sadistic beasts who should be removed from leadership positions in that hijacked organization. People who find the monstrous offerings of a channel they thought was good for kids, and that they didn't have to monitor, should express their indignation directly to the National Geographic Society.
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You can email comments on the National Geographic Channel to comments@natgeochannel.com, but they will probably be ignored. More likely to get attention are hardcopy letters to top management:

President and CEO, John M. Fahey, Jr.
and
Chairman of the Board, Gilbert M. Grosvenor
National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C.  20036-4688

If you subscribe to National Geographic Magazine, you are more likely to get management's attention by telling them that if the offerings of the National Geographic Channel do not change by year's end, you will NOT renew your own subscription and NOT give any subscriptions as gifts.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 1,914.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 2:21 PM