VEN (WASHINGTON) — Chafing from criticisms of decades-long racist content in their iconic National Geographic magazine, NatGeo TV executives announced Monday that they may shelve their new reality series Urban Safari,  which examines what the network  describes as “the peculiar, frequently violent, and shockingly dysfunctional lives of inner-city blacks in Europe and the United States.”

The first episode in the series — Urban Safari:  Baltimore, Maryland — addressed crime, drug addiction, high unemployment, the Freddie Gray riots, white flight, the city’s eroding tax base, and the venal incompetence of black city officials who — aided by a complicit press — attempt to cloak their gross malfeasance in feigned outrage and unfounded, obligatory accusations of racism.

After the episode aired Sunday night,  it was immediately and forcefully condemned by longtime Baltimore resident and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), as well as the entire Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).

Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton called for boycotts, urging sponsors to remove their advertising from the network and magazine, and former Attorney General Eric Holder called the series “a scurrilous attempt to defame and dehumanize People of Color.”

Baltimore’s mayor, Catherine Pugh held a joint press conference with city officials Monday morning, urging Baltimore’s inner-city  population not to riot in the wake of the controversy, while reassuring potential rioters that the city is prepared to offer them “room to destroy” if  they decide to ignore calls for restraint and  burn and loot and throw rocks and bottles at the police, who —  as was the case during the Freddie Gray riots in 2015 — have been ordered to stand down.

Developing . . . .