History Channel... again?

[Robert Braun]

Ex-Presidents, Widow Want JFK Film Probe.

Associated Press
Tuesday, February 03, 2004

LOS ANGELES — Two former presidents and the widow of Lyndon B. Johnson are calling on the History Channel to investigate a documentary it aired alleging President Johnson was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Lady Bird Johnson said the film "falsely and irresponsibly" accuses her husband of conspiring to kill President Kennedy.

No accusation made against Johnson "has hurt as painfully," the 91-year-old former first lady said in a Jan. 29 letter. Her husband died in 1973.

Copies of her letter were sent to the chief executives of three companies that own A&E Networks, which includes the History Channel. The letters went to Bob Wright of NBC, Victor Ganzi of Hearst Corp. and Michael Eisner of The Walt Disney Co.

Former Presidents Ford and Carter also sent letters citing the documentary, "The Guilty Men," which aired last November as part of a series of History Channel specials on the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination.

Ford, noting he was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission that determined Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy, called the History Channel documentary "reprehensible."

Alleging that Johnson, as Kennedy's vice president, was part of a conspiracy to murder him is "the greatest, most damaging accusation ever made against a former vice president and president in American History," Ford, 90, wrote in his Jan. 23 letter.

The letters were released Monday to The Associated Press by Tom Johnson, chairman of the LBJ Foundation and a representative of the Johnson family.

Calls to NBC and Disney were not immediately returned.
"We don't comment on correspondence with our chief executive officer," said Hearst spokesman Paul Luthringer.

Tom Johnson said he and three other former Johnson aides planned to meet Wednesday with executives of the History Channel and A&E Television Networks to press for an investigation and for its findings to be made public.

Nickolas Davatzes, president of A&E Television Networks, was expected to take part, History Channel spokeswoman Lynn Gardner said Tuesday.
Other Johnson aides scheduled to participate are Jack Valenti, now head of the Motion Picture Association of America; journalist Bill Moyers; and attorney Larry Temple.

"I'm puzzled, bewildered, that a distinguished enterprise like the History Channel would put on the air such garbage such ugliness," Valenti said in November. "It makes one sick."

When the Kennedy series aired, the History Channel said in a statement that the point of view in "The Guilty Men" was "meticulously researched."

"By presenting different viewpoints we enable our viewers to decide to agree or disagree with them and to arrive at their own conclusions," the channel said.

Gee. I'm stunned. Shocked to my drawers that the HistoryChannel might actually stoop to consider presenting "opinion" and "fancy" as FACT.

Bob.

[Robert Braun]

History Channel Mulls JFK-Johnson Film Probe

Thursday, February 05, 2004

LOS ANGELES — Former aides to President Lyndon Johnson met with History Channel executives Wednesday to demand a re-examination of a program that accused Johnson of conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination.

"We can't let stand the blatant falsity of the allegation in that program," Larry Temple, special counsel in the Johnson White House and president of The LBJ Foundation, said after the meeting in New York.

The aides, along with former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and Johnson's widow, Lady Bird Johnson, want an independent probe of the claims in "The Guilty Men," which the channel aired in November.

Temple, along with journalist Bill Moyers; Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America; and Tom Johnson, chairman of the LBJ Foundation, met for an hour with Nickolas Davatzes, president of A&E Television Networks, which includes the History Channel.

Davatzes and History Channel executive vice president Dan Davids agreed to consider their request, Tom Johnson said Wednesday.

"They made no commitment whatsoever" to an investigation, he said. "I told them we would not accept a whitewash ... and are not yet abandoning the potential for litigation."

No indication was given of when a History Channel decision would be made, he said.

Davatzes and Davis listened to the concerns presented "and took them very seriously," according to a History Channel statement Wednesday. "The History Channel strives to present history in an accurate manner."

Kennedy's killing remains a controversial event and the channel presented a series of programs that looked at many conspiracy theories about Kennedy's death, some contradictory, the statement said.

"The History Channel does not endorse any specific theory," it said.

Tom Johnson said the executives expressed concern that the issue had been "ratcheted up" by letters from Ford, Carter and Mrs. Johnson to the chief executives of NBC, Hearst Corp. and The Walt Disney Corp., which own A&E Networks.

The letters pressed the case for an investigation by independent journalists or historians of "The Guilty Men," one of a series of documentaries aired by the History Channel to mark the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's murder.

"I assured them (Davatzes and Davids) that those were very heartfelt letters," Tom Johnson said. "I also conveyed my disappointment that I had been unable to get an earlier hearing on this."

The Johnson camp expects a probe will find the film falsely accused Johnson of conspiring to kill Kennedy, Temple said, and wants either an on-air program or a statement retracting the allegations.

The documentary "clearly has resulted in misleading a lot of people, particularly young people, who have written to the LBJ Library asking, 'How can you have this monument to a murderer?"' Temple said.

[pshrake]

I have to admit as one with a life long facination with the assasination, I have to chime in here....

Just the title of the program, "The Guilty Men" clearly inidcates that the History Channel has a specific slant on the assasination. The program, as do many other studies of the assasination, makes an assumption that
one can identify who killed the president. Unfortunately, the real frustrating and frankly scary issue of the murder, is that though there may be many suspects, there is no clear evidence on anyone, including Oswald. I know, I know, I can hear the groans of many of the readers out there, I am one of those who believe that Oswald could not have done the crime, saying that, I also do not believe that a vast conspiracy existed to kill the president.

In any case, one issue that most people seem to ignore about Johnson, was that he was not in the best of health at the time of the assasination, I might have my specific details wrong here, but I do believe that he was suffering from a cronic, hereditary heart condition. In fact he had at the time of the assasination outlived lived most males in his family. His untimely death so shortly after his own presidency was over is an illustration of the fact that he had major health issues, all of which leads to the suggestion that why, assasinate the President when you are unsure if you will live the next 5 years?

In general, the History Channels program is just another example of thier "Pop History" tabloid like presentation of the most dramatic, and uneducated views of the past.

If one really wants to get scared about the assasination, one ought to look at the investigation. No I am not about to go into a "cover up" diatride, but if one looks soley at the government documents released in the last 30 years, one gets the clear picture that our government, in a moment of crisis, dropped the ball. One reason why we will never really know what happened in Dallas is that the investigation was bungled. It was not covered up, it was just screwed up, and that frankly is more disturbing than anything else.


Pete Shrake

[Robert Braun]

If one really wants to get scared about the assasination, one ought to look at the investigation. No I am not about to go into a "cover up" diatride, but if one looks soley at the government documents released in the last 30 years, one gets the clear picture that our government, in a moment of crisis, dropped the ball. One reason why we will never really know what happened in Dallas is that the investigation was bungled. It was not covered up, it was just screwed up, and that frankly is more disturbing than anything else.

Pete, I'm not sure where you're going with this.

Noone disagrees that the Warren Commission did things that it shouldn't have, and didn't do things (like interview some witnesses, etc.) it should have. The investigation was hardly a model of efficiency and genius. If that was where you were going, then we agree...

... recognizing that the central conclusion of the Warren Commission-- that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and killed the president, wounded Governor Connally, and later murdered Officer Tibbett-- has never been refuted. "Thoeries" abound but the main conclusion based on the evidence has stood the test of time.

The History Channel is just the latest entry in a long cavalcade of conspiracy wackos anxious to sling accusations anywhere in hopes that something sticks. Since noone ever challenges them on the evidence, they've gotten away with mucho crazy pop-culture tabloid history-- as you have so perfectly pointed out.

Now, they just can't ignore their ciritcs, because this time it isn't "Joe Six-pack" from "Fly-over Country, USA" complaining!

Bob.