Eco-terrorist Takes Hostages At Discovery Channel Headquarters

by Jess Leber · 2010-09-01 13:14:00 UTC
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Listen up: Here is a lesson in how not to save the planet.

It comes from a man named James Jay Lee, who proclaims he is undertaking a "Save the Planet Protest" (Here is his MySpace page). Earlier today, he stormed the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland with a gun and possibly explosives and has reportedly taken hostages. The situation is now unfolding, and police have evacuated the building.

Update: News outlets are reporting that police have shot the gunman and taken him into custody. Three hostages have been released safely. The condition of James Lee is not known.

Update 2: James Lee was reportedly killed after being shot by police ending the four-hour standoff this afternoon.

Unfortunately, it is in the name of the planet that he has resorted to violence. Lee has a long-running beef with Discovery Communications for going soft on the planet's environmental problems in its frequent nature-related programming. He was arrested for a protest outside the company's headquarters before in 2008, when bloggers back then called him "hilarious" and "insane." Indeed, his manifesto, just released by authorities, reads as a laundry list of extreme demands to the media company filled with hateful rhetoric. For example, he demands they include programming to advocate people stop giving birth to "filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution."

While his protests in the past may have been funny, this situation is surely not. At Change.org, we've criticized the softball environmental coverage from Discovery Communications too, especially for allowing environment-hater Sarah Palin to host an upcoming nature show about Alaska (see posts here and here). But while signing petitions, writing emails, attending protests, and even sometimes breaking the law to make a statement is all fair game, "eco-terrorists" who use violence clearly are going way over the deep end. Lee is endangering others, and also irreparably hurting his cause.

I'll update this post as the hostage standoff unfolds, but I am praying that police will be successful in resolving this situation peacefully.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Jess Leber is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C
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