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This week saw the BBC accused of misleading viewers of their Frozen Planet series. Accusations from the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, and Sun even cried ‘fake’. That wasn’t surprising, however, considering their typical view on the Beeb.The scene in question features a mother polar bear and her new born cubs in their den, but the footage was filmed in a Dutch zoo, not the Arctic, as some disgruntled fans were expecting. They voiced their upset via Twitter:
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“Incensed about the fake newborn polar bear cub scene in Frozen Planet!! How could they! bbc.co.uk/news/entertainme…
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The BBC quickly moved to diffuse the situation and quash the ideas of any footage being ‘faked’ or ‘misleading’.
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“No scenes in Frozen Planet are faked but some can’t be filmed in the wild. The way they’re captured is shown here bbc.in/vtaHAg
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“RT @guardiannews: Frozen Planet’s polar bear footage was standard practice, claims BBC gu.com/p/3438a/tf
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Their press office fired out the video (which had been available since early November) of the show’s producer talking about the birth of the polar bears in a Dutch zoo. The BBC said it was “some of the most endearing and revealing footage in the series”, not exactly words you’d imagine to be used on hidden, misleading or faked footage is it? Twitterers said no and saw through the criticism.
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“Frozen Planet: BBC denies misleading fans bbc.in/sTWHyQ Well, I was always aware that sequences are done in studios or sanctuaries.
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The public then turned on the tabloids, expressing their disgust at the victimisation of such a highly regarded programme.
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“bleeding Daily Mirror trying to discredit the BBC’s magnificent Frozen Planet. Four years under an iceberg isn’t good enough for the brave hacks manning the coffee machine.
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“Nae wonder I Dinnae buy papers anymore with some of todays front pages. Shite journalism especially the mirror on trying to shame frozen planet. Maybe send journalist and editor on next trip and see the hard work that is done!
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Even well-known comedian Dara O’Briain got involved.
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The disgust turned to laughter, and many began cracking jokes about the ordeal.
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This shock footage was added to the pile.
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Frozen Planet BBC Polar bear – Fake Footage ??
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A lot of people felt very strongly about the situation and how the tabloids had tried to write off so much hard work, passion and incredible, never-seen-before footage of the natural world. Robert Hall articulated well what most seemed to be thinking.
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“I am loving the fact that the public are seeing beyond the press reports about Frozen Planet being “fake”. It is easy for moronic journalists to sit behind their desk and write about how the BBC tried to “trick” us into believing the shots of the polar bear cubs birth and the freezing of the catapillar were real, but the reality is that filming either of those events in the wild would be damn near impossible. The truth is that they were showing us all how these things happen, and at no point did they say “everything you see in this is real and in the wild”. The purpose of the program was to educate people in what life in the polar regions is like, and I will DEFINITELY be buying the boxset.
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Sir David Attenborough appeared on TV defending the show in an attempt to shed some clarity for those still somewhat confused.
“If you had tried to put a camera in the wild in a polar bear den, she would either have killed the cub or she would have killed the cameraman.”
“It’s not falsehood and we don’t keep it secret either,” said Sir David
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David Attenborough defends ‘Frozen Planet’: ‘It’s not falsehood’Sir David Attenborough says that the BBC programme did not mislead viewers.
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Further suggesting that viewers were satisfied with the footage, Ofcom barely had anything to say on the matter, having received barely any complaints.
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“Ofcom says it has received “fewer than a handful” of complaints over the BBC’s Frozen Planet bbc.co.uk/news/entertainme…
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But were viewers right to feel let down by the lack of clarity from the show and Attenborough?
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“Apparently David Attenborough’s frozen planet, a polar bear giving birth was actually made out to be in the artic but was actually filmed in a zoo……GUTTED! I feel like I’ve just been told father Christmas isn’t real…..! <\3
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The Mirror continued to slate the BBCdubbing more footage from the series a ‘sham’. This came after a BBC spokesperson confirmed that scenes featuring the freezing of a woolly caterpillar and the growing of ice and snowflakes were also filmed in controlled environments.Mirror columnist and TV critic Jim Shelley lambasted the show by saying that Sir David “would be better to recognise that what he and the BBC did was duplicitous”, and ” clearly misleading”, which would leave viewers “disappointed to find out that Sir David is yet another TV presenter they cannot totally trust.”
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The public were not biting, and Radio 1 DJ Maryanne Hobbs Tweeted a message in support of the Frozen Planet team.
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Out of all the publicity, both, good and bad, came a lot of support and a huge boom in tourism to the poles. It’s fair to say that penguins and polar bears are now definitely ‘cool’. Travellers are more eager than ever to get out and see amazing things, like those advertised in Frozen Planet.
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Frozen planet: The lure of the AntarcticThanks to ‘Frozen Planet’ and Scott centenary, some travel companies report a 300 per cent increase in bookings to the South Pole…
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Recreate Attenborough’s Frozen Planet: On the trail of penguins in Chile’s …By Gabriel O’rorke Inspired by David Attenborough’s dulcet tones and footage of wintery birds bedecked in their morning suits, I …
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The issue was continually raised leading up to Christmas with Attenborough in the limelight promoting his most recent film – The Bachelor King 3D. Whilst on Sky News the idea of the show misleading viewers was brought up again. Talking generally about wildlife film making Sir David said “Sometimes you will film one animal, then take another and cut the two together,” continuing, “Sometimes you film one scene this year and another scene next year.”He really wanted to stress that “making natural history film is an art”, something, which maybe people forget. It’s about portraying a story accurately and if we want to see these processes as they really are, then maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to jump on, and challenge them when we are lucky enough to experience them.
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Sky News: Attenborough defends archive footageSir David Attenborough has defended the use of archive footage in documentaries, following a row over scenes from his recent Frozen Plane…
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Frozen Planet and its famous pretend Polar Bears spent their Christmas by receiving kudos, and sympathy, featuring in several reviews of the year. The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones closed out the story on Christmas day by summarising “That’s what the BBC gets for raising expectations.”
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2011 showed us new ways of seeing | Art and design | guardian.co.ukDec 25, 2011 … Jonathan Jones: The sense of new images hitting our eyes from everywhere is one of the most remarkable aspects of 2011.
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Maybe he’s right. Maybe £16million and four years of hard work was well spent after all!
Two weeks on the web: Frozen Planet’s ‘faked’ key scenes
10 Tuesday Jan 2012
Posted Digital Journalism, Karl
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