The History Channel is Junk

 

Bill & Vicki Tracey, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I do watch the History Channel, first off. I mean, I'm not saying I don't watch it. When I'm tired of the non-news from CNN and don't even want to venture over to Fox, and PBS even starts spouting the same old narratives that network news and mainstream media spouts, I'll just run on over to the History Channel where they pretend to be educational, except with less of the pretense. You got the American Pickers buying people's junk so they can re-sell it for a profit, then there's the Counting Cars guys fixing up cars and then you got the Pawn Stars trying to rip people off for their family heirlooms. I mean, this is not exactly educational television; but it's entertaining and it's reality TV. That's no consolation but it's slightly more honest than, "Is Joe Biden too much of a pussy to stand up to Putin?" I mean, who gives a shit?

What's funny is that the little bit of education that these shows try to provide ends up being precisely wrong. It stands out in my mind how Rick Harris from Pawn Stars flat out told a guy that there never was a war with the Philippines. Sorry, Rick, the US did go to war with the Philippines, back in 1899. I won't go into that, I actually know about it, but I'm just kind of astounded that a channel calling itself history allows one of their people to literally give completely false information about history on one of their programs. Funny stuff. 

But hey we can't expect a show with a guy on it named Chumlee who pretends to be a ninja and breaks stuff in the store swinging around a ninja sword to be all about historical accuracy. It's entertainment. Leave education to our educational institutions and let television be the marketing tool it's meant to be. Nothing high-minded about it but it passes the time between having to go to work and getting some sleep.