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Discovery Channel's Shark Week is able to draw as many as 53 million viewers. While the cable outlet has included some conservation information in recent years, it seems to be shifting back toward fear-mongering based on fantasy rather than fact. The productions include Photoshopped film of a "megalodon" that is extinct, "deadliest" sharks that haven't killed anyone, and scientists played by actors.

Bob Garfield interviews marine biologist David Shiffman for On the Media August 15, 2014.

"ASTORIA, Ore. — The salmon here in the Columbia River, nearly driven to extinction by hydroelectric dams a quarter century ago, have been increasing in number — a fact not lost on the birds that like to eat them. These now flock by the thousands each spring to the river’s mouth, where the salmon have their young, and gorge at leisure."

"Under threat from rising sea levels and tsunamis, the authorities of a provincial capital in the Solomon Islands have decided to relocate from a small island in the first such case in the Pacific islands."

"Kurdish and Iraqi forces seized control of Iraq’s largest dam from Islamic State militants as the U.S. deployed air power that helped reverse some gains made by the Sunni-Muslim insurgents in the north."

"Montana farmer Rocky Norby has worked the land along the Missouri River for more than 20 years, coaxing sugar beets and malted barley out of the arid ground."

"DuPont wants to clean up its former Pompton Lakes munitions plant — contaminated with a litany of elements that can cause cancer and other illnesses — using far weaker standards than the state usually requires, a strategy that echoes prior attempts by polluters to push for less extensive cleanups at other sites in North Jersey."

"WILLOWS, Calif. — When the winter rains failed to arrive in this Sacramento Valley town for the third straight year, farmers tightened their belts and looked to the reservoirs in the nearby hills to keep them in water through the growing season."

"Back in April 2006, officials from West Virginia American Water told state regulators they were planning to review the Elk River watershed to find out what potential contamination sources were upstream from their Kanawha Valley water treatment plant."

"More than 1,100 laboratory incidents involving bacteria, viruses and toxins that pose significant or bioterror risks to people and agriculture were reported to federal regulators during 2008 through 2012, government reports obtained by USA TODAY show."

"The explosion of new food additives coupled with an easing of oversight requirements is allowing manufacturers to avoid the scrutiny of the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of chemicals streaming into the food supply."