I wish someone would explain to me why the History Channel is so full of shit

[1-Old-Man]

There are ten thousand stories that can be taken (accurately) from the annals of history that can be told without embellishment and fascinate an audience. But that is not what the History channel airs, not by a long shot. Instead they simply make shit up and pass it off as honest portrayals of historical events. I think it is the most disgraceful and dishonest broadcasting to be found. It could be such a great educational tool, but instead its just a tool that seems to be used (purposefully?) to add to delusion and confusion. You can learn more about the human condition by watching South Park on the Comedy Channel than can be discovered watching all of the "Discovery" family of channels put together. How can this be? There is no more money to be made by telling the truth than telling lie after lie after lie - so I really can't understand it. Can anyone enlighten me?

[Katashi_itto]

1. No, sorry

[Keefer]

2. Example,

please?

[1-Old-Man]

5. Flip it on and watch it for about 6 hours, about 8 programs worth

Watch it for one full evening and you'll see exactly what I mean. When I started the post there was a program on about a new King Tut's tomb, and virtually every word said, every scene shown, was utter horseshit.

[Warpy]

13. It's especially dismal on the weekend and their evening program

is definitely geared toward people who just want to switch their brains off and have nothing whatsoever to do with history. It's all "reality" TV in the evenings and aliens or religious claptrap or Nostradumbass fare on weekends.

Once in a blue moon, they show something wonderful, like "black blizzard." Mostly it's pap for morons.

[Posteritatis]

38. Spare them the pain of watching it. Looking at their lineup is damaging enough. (nt)

[Marr]

49. How about this?

I agree with the OP. The "History" Channel is a bad joke. You can find some great historical documentaries on the BBC though-- and you can find those BBC documentaries on YouTube as well.

[Berlum]

3. History channel got a wicked bad case of Republicon "Family Values"

[Warren DeMontague]

4. You mean bigfoot wasn't instrumental in planning Pearl Harbor?

Ah, cable.

[struggle4progress]

50. Well, I can't see any other explanation for Bigfoot's sudden flight to Mars

[Laffy Kat]

6. It's not just the History channel.

Have you seen TLC lately? Talk about doo doo.

[TexasProgresive]

7. Truth doesn't sell soap.

Sensationalism is easy and cheap

[Catherine Vincent]

67. ...

[Junkdrawer]

8. Accurate history is the most subversive subject there is...to a totalitarian society.

Draw your own conclusions.

[RZM]

14. Oh please

It's about the ad revenue and nothing else. If they could make more with actual history, that's what they would be doing.

[leftstreet]

42. How many viewers do they get?

You don't hear people talking about any History Channel programs in a way that would suggest gazillions are glued to their sets

If it was really only about ad revenue, they'd be trying to increase viewer stats

[RZM]

44. I doubt it was ever very large

My guess is that this gets the younger demos. Anybody who watched back in the old days remembers that the commercials were almost always geared to seniors, which explains the previous WWII obsession. Every ad was either term life insurance, inflatable pillows, or craftmatic adjustable beds.

[Deep13]

9. It's commercial media: lowest common denominator. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

10. CSPAN3 = what the History Channel should be

(at least with respect to American History)

http://www.c-span.org/History/

Their video library is an amazing wealth of information ready to search and stream.

[1-Old-Man]

34. Unfortunately we only get C-Span 1 & 2

Direct TV (small dish) doesn't carry C-Span 3, but I am subscribed to their PodCasts of American History TV.

[KansDem]

53. That's one of the reasons we gave up cable in 1996...

We used to get all three C-Span channels. I watched them all the time.

Then we got a notice from our cable provider informing us that they were going to raise our monthly rate and get rid of C-Span 3. It was a double whammy!

My wife and I agreed to drop it...

[arcane1]

11. It's like the "Time Masheen" from "Idiocracy"

[NYC_SKP]

12. No kidding. It's pathetic.

K/R

[LaydeeBug]

15. They are right wing. They have been for quite some time. nt

[RZM]

16. The sad part is 15 years ago it was already the butt of jokes

For being the Hitler channel. At least that was actual history.

[NuclearDem]

17. But everyone needs to know that Hitler was an occultist alien genius

[gopiscrap]

18. it's because they're corprate whores

[earthside]

19. The Pawn Stars-Pickers Channel?

Lately there hasn't even been much of the bigfoot-apocalyse shows -- it has been all Pawn Stars all day, every day.

These shows are cheap to produce -- and that is what is happening to the 'History' channel.

I haven't watched a program on the History Channel now for a year or more.

[TheCowsCameHome]

20. They've slipped a long way.

Sadly, I don't watch them anymore.

[Motown_Johnny]

21. .

[htuttle]

23. That's my theory, too

Beat me to it...

[Coyotl]

22. Keeping the USA stupid is a proactive industry.

[LadyHawkAZ]

24. Propaganda and indoctrination

If you sell your stuff at this pawn shop/to these guys who knocked on your door for less than half its value, you might be on Tee Vee! Selling your old stuff for less than its value is normal! Look at all these people doing it!

There's aliens and ghosts and stuff! But the gubmint is hiding the evidence! Gubmint can't be trusted! Damn gubmints!

Look how much fun we have making guns! And shooting them! And blowing stuff up! Guns are so much fun! And you can use them to fight bad guys, just like we did with Hitler!

Let us tell you about Jeezus!

There's natural disasters right around the corner! Volcanoes! Earthquakes! Meteor strikes! Scary stuff! Here, let us show you how survival bunkers are made!


~get the picture?

[darkangel218]

25. Isn't Duck Dynasty on History?

I can't stand duck dynasty.

[pinboy3niner]

26. No, it's on A&E. nt

[darkangel218]

31. Ahh thats right.

[KansDem]

52. I just heard about "Duck Dynasty!"

I work with a rabid right-winger and she's just started talking about it a couple of weeks ago. She's brought it up in conversation several times; thinks it's a really terrific show.

She also thinks Obama is the worse president we've ever had and the media has already ordained Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate in 2016.

I don't listen to her much...

[Laelth]

58. She may be right about the Hillary Clinton thing.

Just sayin' ...



-Laelth

[Agnosticsherbet]

27. Capitalism...

They are selling advertising opportunities, and they have decided that more people will watch bullshit than will watch fact.

[Art_from_Ark]

47. It's not the high-brow bleeding plays that pull in the viewers, you know

[Smarmie Doofus]

28. It is to history what NBC Nightly News is to news.

In other words, there's a vague connection.

[liberal N proud]

29. What? - you don't like Mountain Men and Axe Men?

Oh and Ice Road Truckers is the best drive on TV next to Top Gear.

[xfundy]

30. If I'm not mistaken

there's a Murdoch connection.

[onenote]

43. You are mistaken.

[gvstn]

32. It is sad about every niche channel.

The cable companies keep telling us we have to buy bundles so they can support diverse programming niche channels.
Every time there is a new channel with niche programming that is successful in its own small way, it is bought up by one of the big networks and changed over to reality crap. They do this because it is cheap for them to buy up the small guy and it ensures that they own another channel on the dial so that the ad revenue from that channel makes it to their pocket as well. Then they complain that they can't produce quality programming because there are too many channels even though they now own many of them.

The Learning Channel becomes TLC (Hoarders etc.)
Headline News becomes HLN (Nancy Grace etc.)
Court TV becomes TruTV (Cops, Parking Ticket Wars)
Bravo becomes (Queer Eye, Project Runway)
History becomes (Pawn Stars)
A&E (Hoarders and such)
SciFi becomes SyFy (WWE and Ghost busters type stuff)

It really is about owning as many channels as possible and filling the space between commercials as cheaply as possible. No pride in producing a quality program.

[NCarolinawoman]

66. Animal Planet now stinks.

It has become anti-animal. All about about loud-mouth idiots hunting and screaming with glee.

[LittleBlue]

33. They should rename it the Bible-Nostradamus-Knights Templar-

Reality TV Channel.

Basically a bunch of fables, conspiracy theories and myths rather than history.

[geomon666]

35. It's not an educational channel

It's an entertainment one.

[MisterP]

36. cheapens both history in general and its particular subjects (remember the midichlorions?)

I always use that as an example for why we need to start by understanding something on its own terms--otherwise great and terrible mysteries get boiled down to Discovery's farrago
if the limits of historical discourse are Giorgio A. Tsoukalos on one hand and some Randroid or Kersey Graves plagiarist on the other, it'll just collapse under its own weight

[FarCenter]

37. It is a joint venture between Hearst and Disney -- what do you expect?

History (originally The History Channel from 1995 to 2008) is a American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by A+E Networks, a joint venture between the Hearst Corporation and the Disney–ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_(TV_channel)

[SoCalDem]

39. It was part of the feeding frenzy that also destroyed The Learning Channel, A & E

Discovery & National Geographic.

Apparently the people Nat'l Geo is aiming for cannot even be bother to use the actual name.. They call themselves "Nat-Geee-Ohhh" these days..

Even Sci-fi was apparently too hard for their targeted audience, so they became sy-fy.

Major networks bought up the niche channels and now pollute them with repackaged slop they have sitting around for free..

Dateline-Everything-All-the-time..dedicated to solving crimes that were moistly solved a decade or more ago...using old videos looped together to fill the spaces between commercials..

[truebluegreen]

40. Ownership, I believe.

If I recall correctly, Discovery was started by Jacques Cousteau. Don't know who started the others but someone else owns them now...

For a while some years ago I didn't have access to a lot of cable. When I got it again, and tuned in to the History Channel, I remember watching a show called Ancients Behaving Badly or something like that. The subject of the week was Hannibal...I majored in history and spent a lot of time on the Romans, etc and that show was the biggest steaming pile of tripe I had ever seen. I've never watched again. It is embarrassing what passes for educational entertainment on our airwaves.

[onenote]

45. You don't remember correctly

Jacques Cousteau not only didn't start Discovery, he never had anything to do with it. John Hendricks started Discovery. Jacques Cousteau never had programming on Discovery -- he had programming on WTBS.

[truebluegreen]

46. Thank you.

[lpbk2713]

41. Larry the Cable Guy

If anyone ever took the History Channel seriously they should have changed
their minds when Larry the Cable Guy was given a show on that channel.

[MiniMe]

48. For the same reason that Discovery shows things like Megaladon, Mermaids, and Amish Mafia

Make things off and hope somebody will buy it

[Democracyinkind]

51. Fiction sells.

Nuanced history doesn't. There is nothing more underwhelming than real historical research. It doesn't pass well with what is considered entertainment today.

[marew]

54. Oatmeal for brains these days....

9/12/13
“Honey Boo Boo” wedding episode yields highs for TLC series
“Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” said “I do” — or perhaps “I does” — to record ratings with ts season finale Wednesday.
"The season capper of the redneck-eriffic TLC reality show — which featured the commitment ceremony between family matriarch June and her longtime partner Sugar Bear — racked up series highs for the show in a number of categories, including total viewership and the women 25-54 demographic."

[Recursion]

55. I believe the Onion did, a few weeks ago

http://www.theonion.com/articles/let-me-explain-why-miley-cyrus-vma-performance-was,33632/

It was about a different network, but the same basic template applies.

[Laelth]

61. Brilliant work from The Onion. n/t

-Laelth

[ejpoeta]

56. apparently history is not a good seller. I remember when it actually showed history

stuff. I loved watching it. But that doesn't keep eyes I guess. And "reality" shows are cheap to make and people just LOVE them. And who doesn't love an aliens built the pyramids show!! Or a the world is going to end show!! I agree it is terrible. I miss educational programming. But the media doesn't want educated audiences.

[Enthusiast]

57. TPTB do not want an educated populace.....nt

[deutsey]

62. Yeah, they even used to show historical-based movies

and would have a panel of historians on to discuss where the movie was accurate, where it wasn't, and what details were left out.

I'm a history and a film buff, so I liked it, although I remember being frustrated at how brief the discussion had to be in order to cram in more commercials.

[muriel_volestrangler]

59. What you need are channels that make occasional good documentaries

or OK TV with a vague 'historical' connection, and then a specialist 'history' channel can run the stuff cheap as repeats.

So the 'Yesterday' channel in the UK (formerly called 'UKTV History') has, as a typical line-up today, from 8am:
Bargain Hunt (variation on 'Antiques Roadshow')
Time Team (quick archaeological dig)
Battle of Britain: The Real Story
Countryfile (rural 'magazine' programme)
Coast (documentary on historical connections of a section of British or nearby coast)
Antiques Roadshow
Flog It! (another 'Bargain Hunt'-style prog)
Bargain Hunt
Countryfile
Battle of Britain: The Real Story
Time Team
Coast
Countryfile
Treasure Detectives (another Antiques Roadshow-style prog)
The Secret Life of ... Queen Victoria; Alexander the Great (the more TV friendly, less standard history, things about the subjects)
Battle of Britain: The Real Story
Bargain Hunt
Flog It!

So, you can see they do a fair amount of repeats even within a day; this day is all documentary, in one form or another (it's heavy on the antiques), but they'll also run fiction with a historical setting (eg Upstairs, Downstairs). Most of those programmes will have originally been made by the BBC over the past 10 years or so. But I think it does stay away from the sensationalist crap that US cable channels seem to push. But I think it's having the old programmes, which they can buy cheaply, that enables this. And that means having a strong public-service channel that aims for quality that justifies a licence fee by satisfied viewers, rather than a pure 'does this bring in a target audience for advertisers?'

[MerryBlooms]

60. It's an awful channel and rarely worth the bother.

I have been listening and enjoying C Span's First Ladies series-

http://firstladies.c-span.org/

[Joanie Baloney]

63. Your South Park comment was spot on

I don't know if it was intentional but the episode on South Park about the origin of Thanksgiving nails your point on the head:

http://www.tvfanatic.com/shows/south-park/full-episodes/season-15/a-history-channel-thanksgiving/

One of the best episodes evah!

[kentauros]

64. It's something in the industry called "Branding" and all channels do it eventually.

Sure, a channel may start off doing what its original letters depict, such as teaching and learning programming on The Learning Channel. Somewhere along the line, either ownership changes hands, or their share numbers drop and they begin to make changes. So, what's the best way to make changes? Dumb it down.

And so we have the likes of Honey Boo Boo on a channel that used to show medical operation shows and other truly educational media. You have The History Channel showing UFO "documentaries" and other shows that are more speculation than a regurgitation of what has come before. Although, to be fair, History did receive the nickname of "The Hitler Channel" after it was passed from A&E. I have no idea what A&E airs anymore; at one time they actually had good "arts & entertainment" such as Lovejoy.

And then you have the problem of conglomeration. Many of these channels are owned by the same Big Media corp, such as how NBC owns (or did the last time I checked) A&E, Bravo, and USA Networks. Once you have entire blocks of channels owned by them, the branding begins, the dumbing down comes next, and people start to associate the likes of TLC only with reality shows and just plain stupid programming while having no idea what "TLC" stands for. In fact, the networks don't want people to know what the letters used to mean because they are meaningless. The Brand has been set, and that's all that matters.

Recently, a favorite channel I used to watch sometimes rebranded themselves. The Documentary Channel changed to "Pivot" and I have yet to see any programming on it that I like, much less any documentaries. Another worthwhile outlet for intelligent programming bites the dust...

[rurallib]

65. Remember a few years back when Tom DeLay or Newtie the Ging

were trying to defund PBS and claimed that private enterprise could do at least as well if not better?
Well, this is what you get:
- a History channel that has no history
- a science channel that has no science
- a discovery channel where ancient aliens reign
- a learning channel where man rides dinosaurs.

I don't know if those descriptions are 100% accurate. I don't care. They are accurate enough to illustrate the problem and make a point.
We need to have PBS and NPR fully funded and independent.