I was talking on the phone last night and idly surfed over to The History Channel. After finishing the conversation I watched what it was showing: a documentary on aerial reconaissance. In the segment of the program that I watched, I noted three very obvious errors. The first was that the narrator called an F-4 Phantom II an “F-2”. Pretty glaring error, since the F-4 was one of the most popular Western aircraft in the world at one time. (At least for me, I had eleven different models of it when I was a kid. ) Then the narrator was talking about bombing North Vietnam. He said that the North Vietnamese were brought to the peace table in December 1972, and that they signed a treaty in January 1972. How could the narrator miss that? There was one other glaring error I noticed, but I don’t remember what it was now. Near the end of the program, aerial reconaissance moved to the Space Shuttle, “A long way from the Jennies of World War I.” I was under the impression that Jennies were used as training aircraft in the U.S., and didn’t see action in Europe. Am I wrong? (I’m not as knowledgable about WWI as I should be.)
Then there was the show where they said “It’s a doozy” comes from the excellence of the Deusenberg automobile. :dubious: I’m quite ready to admit that I’m wrong, but I though “doozy” came from “daisy”, a term that was popular in the late-19th Century.
I’ve noticed other inaccuracies over the years. Now, The History Channel purports to be a source of historical information; but I think it’s more properly termed “Historical Infotainment”. It seems that I’ve noticed them reporting as fact, things that are easily debunked. I think the producers of their programs should be more rigorous in their fact-checking.
Sometimes they’ll go weeks without showing anything about Nazis or Hitler, but then it’s right back to Hitler.
On digital cable there’s a channel called History International and THAT is also the Hitler channel. And on another channel called Discovery Health they had a program about certain illnesses Hitler had.
He couldn’t take over the world, but he’s slowly taking over our TV!
The French lost the battle of Agincourt because the mud made them feel like they had 15 bags of sugar strapped to their ankles.
Not a historical inaccuracy, perhaps, but it doesn’t make any sense.
For one thing, they didn’t specify the SIZE of the bag of sugar. 1 lb? 5 lb? 10 lb? All of these are available at the grocery store and make for drastically different interpretations of the sentence.
Someone famous once said, “Those that don’t know History are doomed to watch it.” Or something like that. And if they watch it on History channel, they still won’t know it!
At least they were trying to show history then. Earlier that evening they had a documentary on UFO’s. The day before that it was David freaking Icke and his shape-changing reptile-fueled Illuminati conspiracies. F’ing pandering imbeciles.
David Icke on the History Channel? Now that I’d watch. Not, mind you, because I believe him. But just for the train wreck factor. I LOVE reading about nutbar conspiracy theories and crap.
I like when they do “Haunted History”. Yeah, it’s crap, but I like the stories behind the hauntings. See, I’d love to see a folklore history show, sort of “urban legends in history” sort of thing.
Of course, with my luck, they’d probably all center around Hitler making up the third word ending in “gry” or something.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Modern Marvels keeps reaching further and further back in time for new ideas. The last time, somebody on this board pointed me to a tape of “The Wheel,” and now the jokes in my home are about “Fire,” “Hitting Things With Rocks,” and “Bipedal Motion.”
Just a guess, but if this was a UK production, bags of sugar traditionally come in 1KG bags - it’s a fairly common way of describing weight as most people have encountered them.
There’s probably something here. You want “UFO secrets of the Third Riech” you goddit!
Oh wait, the UFO secrets video isn’t available but boy-oh-boy is there some stupid sh*t on that site!
I (used to) know people associated with that site and they do genuinely believe that stuff :eek: I was given a Jordan Maxwell video to persuade me of some of the conspiracy crap. It now has the Tribbles episode of DS9 on it, much more sensible.
) Then the narrator was talking about bombing North Vietnam. He said that the North Vietnamese were brought to the peace table in December 1972, and that they signed a treaty in January 1972. How could the narrator miss that? There was one other glaring error I noticed, but I don’t remember what it was now. Near the end of the program, aerial reconaissance moved to the Space Shuttle, “A long way from the Jennies of World War I.” I was under the impression that Jennies were used as training aircraft in the U.S., and didn’t see action in Europe. Am I wrong? (I’m not as knowledgable about WWI as I should be.)
And if they watch it on History channel, they still won’t know it!