It is vital that there is a narrator figure whom people believe. That's why I never do commercials. If I started saying that margarine was the same as motherhood, people would think I was a liar.
Interpretation
Authenticity in narration builds trust; misrepresenting messages can damage credibility.
In this quote, David Attenborough emphasizes the importance of authenticity in storytelling and the impact of being a credible narrator. He suggests that if he were to endorse something insincere, such as equating margarine to the concept of motherhood, it would undermine his integrity and lead to distrust among his audience. This reflects a broader theme in communication about the necessity of truthfulness and the responsibility of narrators to maintain their credibility.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of trust in media, this quote can exemplify the need for authenticity.
I don't think we are going to become extinct. We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question.
I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial.
There's a small worm called Loa Loa Filariasis. This parasite can survive in one environment exclusively- namely, underneath the skin and inside the eyes of human beings. Children and the elderly in tropical regions (usually the poorest) are the most widely affected. A painful, slow death is virtually certain. The worm can actually live in the host for 17 years before the host finally dies.
The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
I often get letters, quite frequently, from people who say how they like the programmes a lot, but I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature.
It is only the poor who are forbidden to beg.
I expect that any day now, I will have said all I have to say; I'll have used up all my characters, and then I'll be free to get on with my real life.
Something like fear chilled me as I sat there in the small hours alone-I say alone, for one who sits by a sleeper is indeed alone; perhaps more alone than he can realise.
Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.
Everybody works but the vacant lot
And if there was no Fall, what then of the need for Redemption? What god was offended and by whom? Some especially touchy cave bear whose skull had been improperly enshrined?
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