The Washington Post published an article Monday citing researchers who accused Discovery's "Shark Week" of "overwhelmingly" featuring white men as experts. They also claim it emphasizes "negative messages about sharks."
The article written by Daniel Wu, titled "'Shark Week' lacks diversity, overrepresents men named Mike, scientists say," starts off by describing biology professor Lisa Whitenack, who "loved sharks" as a child but "rarely saw any women she could look up to" when watching documentaries of sharks on TV.
"Why would I know I could do that?" she said. "I don't come from a family of scientists. I didn't see very many people that looked like me on television."
Whitenack became a shark researcher, seeing the pandemic as "an opportunity to study the source of her old misconceptions," including whether Discovery Channel's shark-based shows were "feeding audiences the wrong messages about sharks — and who studies them."
Whitenack and her team examined "hundreds" of Shark Week episodes airing back to the 1980s. She published a paper on it just last month claiming Discovery's programming "emphasized negative messages about sharks, lacked useful messaging about shark conservation, and overwhelmingly featured white men as experts — including several with the same name."
Co-author of the study, conservationist David Shiffman said the programming "featured more White experts and commentators named 'Mike' than women."
"When there are hundreds of people of color interested who work in this field, [and] when my field is more than half women, maybe it's not an accident anymore that they're only featuring White men," said Shiffman.
The author cites marine biologist Catherine Macdonald, who stated in a 2020 Scientific American piece that women in marine sciences face a "misogynistic" culture.
She wrote programs like 'Shark Week' "further concentrate power in the hands of white male 'featured scientists,' exacerbating academic power imbalances."
The study revealed more episodes of "Shark Week" "included stories of attacks and other fearmongering messaging than positive language describing sharks as 'awe-inspiring' or ecologically important," according to Wu.
He then claimed the researchers found Shark Week "lacked effective messaging" about conservation issues.
"Though Discovery has used the show to promote legislation protecting sharks, 'Shark Week' rarely gave viewers actionable information about conservation issues, such as avoiding seafoods caught in ways that also trap and harm sharks, the study claims," wrote Wu.
In response to the article, conservatives threw some punches at the "woke"-obsessed liberal media.
"On behalf of white men everywhere, I'm so sorry for being racist toward… *checks notes*… sharks!?!" wrote Donald Trump, Jr.
"Sharks are good and safe. White men are not," wrote Babylon Bee chief Seth Dillon.
"Discovery owes everyone — especially any sharks who were offended — an apology," he added.
"Anti-shark bigotry during Shark Week is something WaPo cannot abide," wrote podcaster Buck Sexton.
In October, a Washington Post article argued that America has a "white voter problem" and is "in trouble" because white people "are likely to be the majority of voters for at least two more decades."
Previously, a Post piece said terms such as "woke" and "CRT" are euphemisms used by conservatives to convey their "racism" in a socially acceptable manner.
And in June, the Post suggested black Americans may need to "flee" the country because of a growing population of "crazy white people" who are "not to be trifled with."
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