[troutman]

Discovery Channel Is Finally Breaking Up With Bad Science

http://www.motherjones.com/media/201...y-john-hoffman

John Hoffman is the new boss of documentaries at the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and the Science Channel, and he wants you to know big changes are coming to the networks sometimes criticized for favoring overcooked "docu-tainment" over scientifically accurate programming.

"I am the change," he told me in his first extended interview since taking the job in January. We met at Discovery HQ in Manhattan, his corner office view only obscured by the five Emmys lining his windowsill.

Hoffman calls climate change "the most important story of our time."

Documentary programming at the Discovery Channel—along with Animal Planet and Science Channel—is experiencing a "dramatic shift," Hoffman said. "I'm also part of a group decision, throughout the company, to bring a lot more science. To elevate the scientists in the films."

Ratings, he said, aren't the be-all and end-all of his job. The other metrics are that a project "gets good press, gets good buzz, it gets good reviews, and five, it gets awards."

I pushed him more: "But how do you prevent that stuff from happening?"

In the only even remotely testy moment in our interview, Hoffman said, "Do you think for a second I am going to risk my reputation and that I'm going to do something that is a troubled documentary? That I associate the brand with either controversy, or scandal, or whatever? It's career suicide."