Awful propaganda film about bears in NJ

[RebelOne]

As you New Jersey residents may be aware, activists have managed to put a stop to the bear hunt for the time being. I received this e-mail from one of the activists.

Dear friends,

Some of you have seen a promo on NJN public TV for a show called "Bears: Too Close For Comfort", and have been concerned because it seems to promote fear. The truth is that it is far worse than you can imagine; it is one of the most biased, fear-mongering films on a wild animal ever made. Let me put it this way - the film opens with scary music reminiscent of a horror movie, then focuses in on two demonic looking bear eyes. That sets the tone for the entire thing.

I saw the thing a week ago and called the programming director for NJN to complain and, to quote him specifically, he called the scary music "craft" and said that my opposition to it was based on "smoke and mirrors." In other words, there was no way he would acknowledge or deal with any concerns about the sensationalistic and fearful way the film was made. On the factual errors, however, he told me to talk to the producer of the film and work it out with him, which I did. To cut to the chase, the producer admitted there were problems and offered to run two 15 second disclaimers, one before and one after the film, which NJN had to approve.

NJN has a history of being very pro-Fish and Game, as they have produced a number of their documentaries. They proved their bias once again as they would only approve the meekest of disclaimers, greatly diluted from my original text which will do little to tell the whole truth.

Still, by agreeing to even have the disclaimers, they have admitted that there are serious problems with the film, and, as they would not allow any discussion on the fear issues, they have left themselves wide open for attack on that basis. More importantly, the film's producer has a contract with NJN that states that everything within the film is truthful - which we know is not the case. This then is the reason we give NJN for cancelling the contract and not airing the film.

NJN is public broadcasting; they may have even used our tax-dollars to buy this film. We need to show the CEO of NJN that if they air this it will damage their reputation and create a terrible scandal. We are going to need a lot of pressure if we hope to stop this from hitting the airwaves. The film is set to run sometime in February - so we must move now!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Since we know that the programming director won't act, we are going right to the top of NJN.
Please call and fax:
Elizabeth G. Christopherson , NJN CEO and President:
Phone: [phone]
Fax [phone]
You can also email her executive assistant at [e-mail]


Stu Chaifetz
Director, Animal Protection PAC
[e-mail]
www.ProtectNJAnimals.com