Sci Fi Channel crosses the line
Written on July 17, 2004 by Vic HoltremanAccording to CNN, the heavily promoted upcoming "unauthorized" documentary about M. Night Shyamalan was actually made with M. Night's (how the heck do you refer to him, anyway?) cooperation.
Sci Fi Channel has been promoting this heavily as a documentary about Shyamalan that started out with his cooperation, but when it dug too deep he soured on the idea. Supposedly they continued without his permission, unearthing some deep, dark secret.
Turns out it was all B.S. and he was in on it from the beginning, and that it may be more of a "mockumentary".
I'm sorry, but in my mind, this crosses the line over to false advertising. Sci Fi Channel advertises the show heavily for weeks to get people to tune in, advertisers pay for airtime based on this fact, people tune in based on that, and then the network delivers something that's basically a hoax.
That's just wrong, and I'll bet that people who tune in and are not aware of it will end up pretty annoyed at the very least. Of course it won't matter much to Sci Fi and it's advertisers, who will have gotten the ratings they worked so hard to attain under false pretenses.
Source: CNN.com
Truth in Advertising. Lawsuits standing by.
The FCC could probably hammer them for knowingly depicting a lie as the truth. The fact (if true) that Shyamalan was in on it will cost him a lot of respect from his fans and peers.
C'mon, Scifi channel? They've strayed from their roots so badly. Lexx, Tripping the Rift, Scare Tactics? The website has many stories on 'The Passion of the Christ'. Do they think that is Science Fiction too?
Get back to Star Trek, Babylon 5, and the Twilight Zone. Stick with Stargate, acquire ST:TNG and Mutant X, and don't ever attempt another reality show.
There's my rant for the day...
You go boy.
Your comments make me think of what happened to MTV over the years. Of course most people reading this probably weren't even born when MTV premiered and all they showed was music videos. :-)
Vic
Sci-Fi has always been at a disadvantage because the sci-fi genre is a smaller niche than most. Trying to capitalize on The Village with a "Blair Witch" style mockumentary was a terrible idea. Why not just do a "making of" special about the movie? I'm sure people would have tuned in to see that. I, for one, am very interested in seeing The Village.
As for MTV, what can I say? The younger generation is a tough audience, and these days, music videos aren't nearly as revolutionary as they used to be. As Madonna proved back in the 80's and 90's, the videos that get the most attention are the ones with the most shock value. MTV has to survive on more than music videos alone, so they're trying to cater to an audience that wants everything more outrageous and more extreme than the last time.
Brian
"...so they're trying to cater to an audience that wants everything more outrageous and more extreme than the last time."
Yup, but that's a problem. The farther you go, the less "extreme" things seem, the more one gets desensitized, and the envelope must be continually pushed for things to continue to be shocking.
Eventually it'll take a live rape/snuff broadcast, and then even that won't be enough.
Vic
Just wanted to pop in and say it was a pleasure to review your blog. I have bookmarked it and will be visiting often.
I appreciate your approach to your work and I have to reiterate that yours is the best review of F 9/11 that I have thus far encountered.
This is one of the fringe benefits of reviewing at TWR... occasionally I run into some exceptional blogs. I'm glad I found you!
Write On!
Yetzirah
Hey, thanks very much for the props on the site. I can't take credit for the Fahrenheit 9/11 review however, that was written by my friend Brian, who contributes to the site now and then.
Vic
Ooops!
Sorry I didn't notice that little gray word at the bottom of some of the entries. I assumed it was all your work.
But never mind. I like ALL the stuff here and I see most of it is yours! ;-)
Be seein' ya.
No worries. Brian contributes here because we have pretty much the same opinion on these things.
Vic
