Right now there is a man who has taken hostages at the Discovery Channel's building in Silver Spring, Maryland. I'm watching Fox News for the latest updates on what is unfolding. Here is their story on FoxNews.com. (UPDATE: reports are that Lee has been shot by police and the hostages have been released safely) His name is being reported as James Jay Lee and he has a long history of hating the Discovery channel that is well documented online. For starters there is this DCist post from January 2008 about this guy's protest against the Discovery channel. They basically mock him for being a nut because of this insane manifesto he posted online around the same time.
That insane manifesto includes a list of demands that includes this:
2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.
It goes on and on like that and its repeated in two other pages on the same site. Here and here. He also has a Myspace page (entitled "WorldGuardian") where he promotes his website and his protest against the Discovery channel. He also continues to make evident his obsession with some author named "Daniel Quinn" who he lists as a hero. Here are the interests he lists under television:
The Shield, South Park, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and the Discovery channel
He also has a Myspace group dedicated to his protest against the Discovery channel that lists 21 members and 35 forum posts. But that's not the only online forum he started dedicated to his protest of Discovery. He also has a group on a forum called yuku which has 277 posts and 26 members. I'll dig into more information on this guy and update as information becomes available. UPDATE: Lee left the following comment in his myspace group forum on January 25th 2008:
If this one works, it should be repeatable throughout the country. Remember, these are people we're dealing with. But these people do mean well. They just need a little knudge [sic] in the right direction.UPDATE
: Lee offered $200,000 on yuku in an essay contest on March 13th 2008:
Hi folks! Well, I'm back! They held me for 2 weeks! Can you believe it??? What's up with that? Anyway, as you all probably know, they didn't let me finish the $200,000 Essay Contest I was holding. So I am now going to have it online. It's actually $200,000 PLUS $10,000 in CASH! Go to the website for all the new details: savetheplanetprotest.com Ask me anything you want or pry me for information here. That's why I am here, to find someone with the best idea for a TV show that I can give this money and property to!UPDATE: Here is Lee responding to criticism of his protest of Discovery in '08:
Yes, I tried to be reasonable. But like most planet-destroyers, they would not even listenUPDATE: Apparently someone left a laughing emoticon in Lee's myspace forum, which Lee apparently deleted, so Lee left this disturbing message in response:
We'll see who laughs last when I succeed at this.I should note that this was in regards to his protest, which he did put on, in 2008. Still seems incredibly creepy given what's happening today. UPDATE: On his yuku forum someone confronted Lee about the fact that Discovery owns and operates a network dedicated to global warming and "green living". In his response he seems to hate EVERY show that Discovery produces including Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch:
I already looked over what Planet Green is going to do, and guess what? NONE of what they are planning has anything to do with condemning their other show, "Future Weapons" "Dirty Jobs" and the shows that glorify Fishermen who are helping to overfish the oceans. How COULD it? They aren't even attempting to save the planet in my opinion, they just want to make it SEEM that way to fool people and to enhance their reputation as so-called 'environmentalists'. They are monsters and are practically arms-dealers. What the hell do you want me to wait for? More friggen' lies and double-talk. I don't believe for a second that Planet Green is out there to save the planet. In fact, one person here who claims to work for Discovery said that saving the planet was NOT the responsibility of Discovery. This attitude proves to me that it's all lies. So the protest is ON tomorrow, like it or not!In the same thread he goes on to complain about Mythbusters and American Choppers. UPDATE: When a poster on his yuku forum argued that Discovery offered "green programming" and so he should focus on other networks Lee responded:
As for those other thousands of networks, we'll get them ONE at a time, so don't you worry.UPDATE: Eyeblast has come across some very odd and telling videos from James Jay Lee. UPDATE: On his yuku forum Lee claimed that the police committed him for 4 days after his protest in '08:
Yeah, I guess the world did not get saved that week as I had hoped. Was that a failure? Probably. Imagine the police holding me for 2 whole weeks!!! They threw me in the nuthouse for 4 days without bond and then continued to hold me for 2 weeks total until they could 'verify' my address and threw me in a homeless shelter. It was total bullshit. Anyway, my trial is set for March 21 next Friday at 830am Room 401, District Court of Maryland 8552 Second Ave, if anyone wants more laffs. I'm represting myself as my own attorney.UPDATE: On his Yuku forum Lee lamented the fact that Al Gore wasn't involved in his '08 protest of Discovery:
There was a suggestion made today at the protest who said that if Al Gore were there, he could have drawn thousands of people and exerted the pressure needed to make this work if he wanted to. Not a bad idea at all. But most of people in his class won't do stuff like that to a specific company, which confuses me. Can you imagine what a draw it COULD have been if I had his name in just ONE ad? Now, there would have been the crucial difference. But, it's too late to go back and try to contact Gore (not that I would make in within one foot of him).UPDATE: In response to a poster on his yuku forum who claimed to work for Discovery and criticized the event and the forum Lee claimed the forum had produced good ideas. He pointed to the idea of inviting Gore to the rally. Though he notes elsewhere that he never did invite Gore he clearly held Gore in high esteem:
Do you not agree if there was a way to get Al Gore to protest Discovery as was suggested, that Discovery WOULD actually change? After all, how could they say 'no' to him? I can't see them doing that to Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore.Right?
A-HA! Now we're getting somewhere! So it IS possible to change their shows under the right conditions. That was the whole point of that exercise, to find ideas even though this one would certainly be improbable, but NOT impossible.