Wild America . Weekly Alibi . 07-08-97

Wild America

DIRECTED BY: William Dear

REVIEWED: 07-08-97

We live with an interesting paradox in our culture: Even as we quest further in search of the real and the authentic, technology is making "virtual reality" an ever larger part of our everyday lives. "Wild America," the popular nature show that ran for 13 years on PBS, found itself at the center of a "reality" controversy last year. Marty Stouffer, the wildlife photographer who created the program, was accused in early 1996 of staging animal confrontations and filming portions of his program in cages. Stouffer denied the charges, but told The Denver Post that staging could be a matter of interpretation: "Sometimes, we will take a tame animal out for a walk, and if a chase develops, we will film it." The TV series left the air at the end of 1996, but Kathy Burnett, Program Manager of the PBS station in Albuquerque, said that the station stopped airing the program because the rights expired, not because Stouffer did anything wrong. She said that PBS reviewed episodes of the show after the controversy arose but found no evidence of wrongdoing and no violations of PBS rules for nature and wildlife programming.

--Christopher Johnson

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Wild America
Wild America

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Wild America

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