Suspect James Lee said company's shows promote population growth and do little to save the planet.
James LeeThe man who is suspected of taking hostages at the Discovery Channel's headquarters Wednesday before police shot him to death is believed to be homeless former Californian James Lee. Lee has protested the channel in the past because he thought the programming did little to save the planet. CBS News reported Lee managed the website savetheplanetprotest.com, which is a list of demands for the channel.
The Associated Press reported that Lee was charged with disorderly conduct in 2008 after a protest at the channel's Silver Spring, Md. headquarters in which he threw fistfuls of cash into the air and paid homeless people to carry signs condemning the network. In particular, he objected to the shows "Kate Plus 8" and "19 Kids and Counting" for encouraging population growth. Police found $20,000 in cash stuffed in his pockets.
Instead, he wanted to see the network produce shows based on "Ishmael" and "My Ishmael," books by the philosopher Daniel Quinn in which a telepathic gorilla talks about society's failings. Quinn told the AP that had he been able to talk to Lee, he would have told him "he's giving a bad name to the ideas that he's trying to espouse."
During the standoff, NBC called the building and talked to Lee for several minutes. Lee told a producer that he had several bombs, which he learned to make partly by watching the show "Mythbusters."
» Discovery Channel HQ given 'all clear' [CNN]
» Discovery Channel hostage-taker hated programming [The Associated Press]
» James Jay Lee's Manifesto Based on Daniel Quinn's 'My Ishmael' [NowPublic]
» Suspect: 'Planet does not need humans' [UPI]
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