Neutering the ‘National’ (again)

by Alan Mairson on August 8, 2010 2 Comments

Now that it publishes in 33 different languages, what will NGM talk about?

Climate change. Cheetahs. Landscapes. Biodiversity.

But definitely no more stories like this one. Or this one. Or this one.

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Dear John: Let’s Talk

More than 700 people want John Fahey, Chairman & CEO of National Geographic, to break his virtual silence and explain why our Society is:

• staging suicidal stunts
• producing shows about bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism
• saying one thing but doing another
• humiliating the Hutterites
• humiliating the Navajo
• humiliating the Roma
• humiliating poor, destitute people
• tormenting this man
• letting News Corp ruin our good name
• self-censoring stories about China
• trafficking in old stereotypes
• undermining archaeologists
• befriending autocratic thugs
• recruiting for India's army
• supporting a demagogue
• losing itself in a virtual world
• fixating on Adolf Hitler
• marginalizing religion
• selling out to a private equity fund
• and (unfortunately) much more.

Would you join us? If so, please give this interview request a 'thumbs up':

338 more people like Dear John: Let's Talk but we can't include their names. (They're either not on Facebook, or they've asked to remain anonymous.) If you're in the same boat, please let me know here and I'll increase our tally by one. Thanks.

About

Hi. I'm Alan Mairson. I'm a freelance journalist based in Bethesda, Maryland; a former staff writer & editor for National Geographic magazine; and a member & lifelong fan of the National Geographic Society. For details about this project, please check out our inaugural post. For more about my advisers & me, see this. To feel the tight financial grip that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation exerts on the National Geographic Society, peek at these tax returns. And if you'd like to share ideas, questions, or suggestions — or if you just want to heckle :-) — please contact me here. Thanks for stopping by.