The Discovery Channel Communications building in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland came under attack yesterday. James J. Lee, a frustrated environmentalist, burst into the building Wednesday with at least one explosive strapped to his body. Lee took two Discovery employees and a security guard hostage at gunpoint before police shot and killed him. About 1,900 employees work at the Discovery Channel Communications building but none, including the three hostages, were hurt.
For the past several years Lee's life has been scattered and unfocused except when it came to his own environmental agenda. He believed that nothing was more important than saving the Earth's remaining species. He honed his angst about over-population and the depletion of Earth's resources against a cable channel which he claimed was "encouraging the birth of...parasitic human infants". Lee outlined his beliefs on a web site where he "demanded" that the Discovery Channel broadcast programs that discouraged population growth. His manifesto referenced shows that air on the Discovery Communications channels (Discovery, TLC and the Animal Planet) such as Kate Plus 8 and 19 Kids and Counting as programs that were "pro-birth".
In 2008, Lee took out a full page ad in a free local newspaper, The Express, advertising a multi-day protest in front of the Discovery Channel's building. In the ad, Lee railed against Discovery for "causing more harm than good" by not airing programs that have "successful solutions." To fill out his ranks, Lee paid homeless people to hold up the signs and threw handfuls of money into the air calling it "just trash" causing bystanders on the street to go into a frenzy for the money. Due to this incident, Discovery officials became familiar with Lee and his protests. At Lee's trial, he said that he had begun fighting to save the planet after being laid off from his job in San Diego. He drew inspiration from former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and environmentalist Daniel Quinn's book "Ishmael".
After receiving numerous calls from reporters nationwide, Daniel Quinn told the Associated Press that he had never heard of Lee and was stunned. Quinn also said that he would never advocate or support Lee's ideas such as human sterilization. Quinn also mentioned that if he could talk to Lee, he would tell him "he's giving a bad name to the idea's he's trying to espouse."
Today, Discovery Channel employees were safe to return to work. Discovery will be dedicating this week to making sure employees get the support they need after yesterday's scare.
