Post by Robert Braun on Jan 24, 2006 11:53:31 GMT -5
I just love the big build-up that my good ol' chums at the History Channel put out for their "larger than life" specials. Often, the trailers are better than the actual production. This latest episode fits that mold nicely. Their recent "stumblefest" entitled "Lincoln" is is billed as a fresh, introspective look into the dark psychology of (to use their words) one of history's "brightest lights."
For those of you who bother to watch the "History Channel" any more, you have already discerned that their historical "investigations" a blend of the re-hash and the iconoclastic, the latter rarely backed up with reliable, or even tangible evidence. Rarely do they conclude anything-- and you certainly can't consult their sources in an attempt to duplicate their line of investigation to see if you come up with the same conslusions... which I have been informed is the mark of serious historical investigation.
These productions also predicably follow modern political maschinations that the HC producers desperately try to transcribe on the past, whicle promoting their political "take." For example, do you remember what the big "history" story was during the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal?
Sure you do... it was the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemmings "controversy." In this story, the implication was "Well, gee.... Jefferson did it," leaving unspoken, of course, the implication that it was OK for presidents to cheat on their wives... and providing a convenient historical "precedent." (Of course, the fact that this so-called precedent has been largely discredited by credible historical professionals is completely lost on the HC.)
The latest diatribe is a tip-toe (allegedly) through the mind of Abraham Lincoln, a popular war-time president. Along with the bad fade-ins and jerky cinematography intended to portay Lincoln's "vision," we are tortured by a host of obscure 'talking heads,' each spewing opinion as fact, without drawing demonstrable conclusions. Against a backdrop of some of the WORST "reenactments" of supposed historical people and incidents since the movie "North and South," we are led to believe that Lincoln was a depressed, brooding, suicidal, homosexual, maniacal, groping womanizer. There's practically no proof for many of these assertions, but the History Channel is legendary for never letting FACTS get in the way of a 'good story.'
[Sidebar-- Do you need additional proof? All too easy--just check out their series on the so-called "Da Vinci Code," in which the HC producers feckless efforts elevated the idiotic to an art form!]
There may have been more, but I turned off the t.v.
Bob.
For those of you who bother to watch the "History Channel" any more, you have already discerned that their historical "investigations" a blend of the re-hash and the iconoclastic, the latter rarely backed up with reliable, or even tangible evidence. Rarely do they conclude anything-- and you certainly can't consult their sources in an attempt to duplicate their line of investigation to see if you come up with the same conslusions... which I have been informed is the mark of serious historical investigation.
These productions also predicably follow modern political maschinations that the HC producers desperately try to transcribe on the past, whicle promoting their political "take." For example, do you remember what the big "history" story was during the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal?
Sure you do... it was the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemmings "controversy." In this story, the implication was "Well, gee.... Jefferson did it," leaving unspoken, of course, the implication that it was OK for presidents to cheat on their wives... and providing a convenient historical "precedent." (Of course, the fact that this so-called precedent has been largely discredited by credible historical professionals is completely lost on the HC.)
The latest diatribe is a tip-toe (allegedly) through the mind of Abraham Lincoln, a popular war-time president. Along with the bad fade-ins and jerky cinematography intended to portay Lincoln's "vision," we are tortured by a host of obscure 'talking heads,' each spewing opinion as fact, without drawing demonstrable conclusions. Against a backdrop of some of the WORST "reenactments" of supposed historical people and incidents since the movie "North and South," we are led to believe that Lincoln was a depressed, brooding, suicidal, homosexual, maniacal, groping womanizer. There's practically no proof for many of these assertions, but the History Channel is legendary for never letting FACTS get in the way of a 'good story.'
[Sidebar-- Do you need additional proof? All too easy--just check out their series on the so-called "Da Vinci Code," in which the HC producers feckless efforts elevated the idiotic to an art form!]
There may have been more, but I turned off the t.v.
Bob.
