Juno News - December 11, 2022


Shark Week isn't diverse enough？


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

170.77052

Word Count

608

Sentence Count

39


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Yet another example, Andrew, of great surgery-like precision when it comes to journalism.
00:00:05.880 We're tackling the real issues here.
00:00:07.760 This is from the Washington Post.
00:00:09.140 Just take a look at this headline here.
00:00:11.160 Shark Week lacks diversity, over-represents men named Mike, scientists say.
00:00:16.760 So, you know, these are the real issues here.
00:00:18.860 When the Washington Post is not going after systemic racism,
00:00:21.820 when the Washington Post is not tracking down Donald Trump's nefarious activities,
00:00:25.720 their Russian connection, all of that nasty stuff,
00:00:27.740 they're going after the Shark Week, Discovery Channel's lack of diversity.
00:00:32.540 No joke here.
00:00:34.000 Researchers say Discovery's programming overwhelmingly featured white men as experts
00:00:38.360 while emphasizing, this is a real important part here,
00:00:41.320 they hid this in the headline, Andrew,
00:00:43.780 while overemphasizing negative messages about sharks.
00:00:47.280 So we're being too nasty to the great white shark,
00:00:50.200 we're being too preferential to scientists named Mike,
00:00:53.220 and we're being too preferential to experts who are white males.
00:00:56.740 Now, I can absolutely understand that this is the kind of stuff Jeff Bezos was hoping to uncover
00:01:02.240 when he bought the Washington Post.
00:01:04.000 You know, he was probably looking to get maybe some favorable headlines for Amazon,
00:01:06.760 but also tackling the real issues.
00:01:09.300 A lack of diversity on Shark Week.
00:01:11.720 Again, let me just go back to the original point,
00:01:13.820 which we touched on at the beginning.
00:01:15.540 These journalists here who are such experts,
00:01:18.080 who are such giants in the field, Andrew,
00:01:19.700 us at True North, we can never reach these heights.
00:01:21.520 The journalist who wrote this is a Stanford graduate.
00:01:24.820 You know, really, absolutely hard-hitting stuff.
00:01:28.960 It's almost, it's humbling to me to read something like this and realize I'm not even close.
00:01:33.940 I, maybe I missed something here.
00:01:36.860 Are the sharks named Mike?
00:01:38.520 Like, where are all the Mikes coming from in Shark Week?
00:01:40.960 The Mikes are the white scientists on the show.
00:01:45.180 So they did, they did this really hard-hitting analysis stuff here.
00:01:48.480 They did some, they did some research.
00:01:50.260 So there are too many marine biologists named Mike.
00:01:52.660 That's the complaint here.
00:01:53.660 That's exactly it.
00:01:54.680 That's exactly it.
00:01:55.620 So from 1988 to 2020,
00:01:58.680 in a study which was completed by the Public Library of Science,
00:02:02.700 which I think just included watching TV,
00:02:04.980 watching endless hours of Shark Week content,
00:02:07.900 which, you know, is actually a good way of getting some grants.
00:02:11.500 You pitch some insane stories saying,
00:02:13.880 we're going to track down the lack of diversity on Shark Week,
00:02:16.780 and really all you get to do is just watch TV for hours and hours on end.
00:02:20.360 It turns out that actually there's too many white Mike men,
00:02:24.200 white men named Mike, on the program,
00:02:26.020 and not enough black women,
00:02:27.880 and all of the Mike content on Shark Week is nasty towards Shark.
00:02:32.060 We're not portraying sharks, Andrew,
00:02:34.200 as these great beings of oceanic art.
00:02:38.660 You know, we're painting them as nasty, scary creatures
00:02:41.700 in the depths of the oceans.
00:02:43.440 The study author's name is Dave.
00:02:46.260 How dare you take aim at over-representing Mikes
00:02:49.040 when your name is Dave?
00:02:51.000 I know, Andrew.
00:02:52.640 That's like one step short of John Smith,
00:02:55.460 and he's like, oh, we have too many Mikes here.
00:02:57.440 It's like Dave's supremacy is coming to roost here.
00:03:00.240 My goodness.
00:03:00.620 Even better, Andrew,
00:03:01.620 there's another study in that they source in this article,
00:03:05.820 and the last name of the person who created this other study,
00:03:09.680 his last name is White Neck.
00:03:12.760 The guy's last name is White Neck.
00:03:15.480 Does he have a knack for being white?
00:03:17.260 Is this like a big display of white shark,
00:03:20.320 great white privilege?
00:03:21.320 I don't know.
00:03:21.780 .
00:03:27.420 .
00:03:31.320 .
00:03:31.700 .