Jeff Darnell - Viewer Correspondence

One of my fondest memories growing up was watching the general manager of my local television station in Michigan respond to viewer letters. Sad, but true. He would sit behind his desk, read a letter from a viewer, look at the camera dramatically and give his answer, sometimes at the risk of alienating the viewer. I respected his honesty and interest in reaching out to viewers directly.

Thankfully, we don't need to go on camera here, but we can and should take the time to respond to viewer comments in a bigger forum than one-to-one email. We get a lot of questions through our email - comments@natgeochannel.com - and I encourage you to write questions, compliments, complaints, concerns either via the email or this blog. We will, on as regular a basis as possible, take up some emails and concerns here in the blog and answer them so other folks who have the same question can respond.

Without further ado, let's take a few emails we've had recently here at NGC headquarters in Washington, DC.

Stacy writes: Why stir up controversy about Jesus during the week before Easter with a show like "Secret Lives of Jesus"? All you are going to do is confuse some people and cause others to doubt. You could find something more factual that could instead bring some people to Christ. I am so sick of this. Many stations do this every year. I find it very disrespectful. Let's see a show that talks about all of the historical evidence for the existence of Christ and his diety.

NGC: Religion is a topic that National Geographic has covered and will continue to cover over the years. Its an important topic in world culture, but one that clearly brings out very strong emotions on all sides. Our intent is not to be disrespectful in any way, we seek to bring out theories and discussions on all forms of religion and allow viewers to make their own opinions. We often air themed programs surrounding religious holidays simply because that's when viewer's interest is at the highest for these topics. Our goal is not confusion, but discussion and sometimes that does mean covering controversial topics. We believe we broach them in a way that allows people to make their own decisions about the topics we are covering.