Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy

September 14th, 2007

‘History Detective’ defaces history

by Gary Larson

PBS' History Detectives succumbed to revisionist history with Wes Cowan's recent comments on the 2004 election. But this story has an unusual twist.

Bomb-tossing liberal Bill Moyers holds forth with impunity on the Public Broadasting Service, but the subsidized TV network hit a new low in bad taste in a July episode of its popular series, History Detectives.

Entertaining, a smidgen on the shaggy-dog side, the PBS program showcases four academic “detectives” traipsing around the country tracking down arcane histories of assorted relics. It’s a fun program, a fast hour of delicious cotton candy for us history buffs.

It leads us down paths of little discoveries — a shard of bone, a piece of flag, some old cannon ball. Then a “detective” tells us what parts they played in history, if at all. The joy of watching is in the journey.

At the end of each segment, for no discernable reason, a “detective” offers his or her brief uptake, presumably on the subject at hand. Beware. Sometimes it swerves hard left, straight into latte liberal la la land. Revisionism never had it so good.

“Detective” C. Wesley (Wes) Cowan used his brief commentary in a July episode to rip the war. Spewing the usual defeatist jeers (“a mistake,” etc.), Cowan delivers lines in the style of CBS-TV’s Andy Rooney: Cheap shots, drive-by editorializing, strictly partisan; no mature analysis. Hubris reigns; anyone who disagrees can go jump in the lake.

(Producers call such brief commentaries “interstitials.” This was a new term to me. It means “an intervening space between parts.”)

At the end of his piece, Wes Cowan (in real life, not a forensic historian, rather a Cincinnati-based “auctioneer and appraiser”) launches into his partisan jabs. In spirit he is Bill Moyers all over again, skewing facts to suit a partisan purpose. Can bona fide historians appreciate such tawdry remaking of the past? Reshaping history to fit a bias?

Cowan offers that if only his hero, Sen. John F. Kerry, had won the election, oh, what a wonderful world it would be. Fair enough. Give him that. But what stopped us was his smug, fallacious take-down of the Swift Boat Vets and POWS for Truth — except Cowan did not mention the POWs.

If you did not catch Cowan’s sour-faced invective in Episode #503, you never will. His commentary has been snuffed out by his producers, something of a reverse Orwellian memory hole.

In the original, Cowan said the Swift Boats Vets “smeared Sen. Kerry‘s military record.” In this he emulates leftist ideologues, such as Moyers and other livid anti-war freaks of our times, invoking falsehoods to underscore their arguments. ("Garbage in?")

Never had I written to a network, considering it futile. But I did send an email to PBS, more or less to vent on Cowan’s far-out remarks. Love your “Miss Marple,” I wrote, but Cowan is way over the top, dead wrong on the facts. Thus we’d not be renewing our membership, I wrote, petty as that might be (but not an idle threat), with the local PBS affiliate, which I copied on my blistering email.

For kicks I attached a hyperlink my article here in December ’04, titled “Swifties Sink USS John F. Kerry." It was one of those reflexive “take that!” jabs, a vain attempt to set the record straight. Okay, I knew it was an arrow shot up into nowhere but, you know?, it makes one feels better.

Turns out others had written. Legions, maybe. Even PBS’s ombudsman weighed in negatively. Two months later an email from History Detectives pops into our Inbox. Thinking it’s SPAM slipping through an underachieving filter, I nearly discard it. But it's a real response, sort of a form-letter reply to my complaint. Did they "get it?"

Here's what a History Detectives producer wrote, word-for-word, capitalization and bold facing as found in the original email:

Dear Mr. Larson,

Thank you for your interest in and feedback on HISTORY DETECTIVES.

Prompted by a number of viewer responses as well as feedback by PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler on July 13, 2007, we have revised the interstitial following the GAR Photograph story in HISTORY DETECTIVES Episode 503. Specifically, we’ve modified the reference to the Swift Boat Veterans and John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.

REPLACEMENT LINE: "THE GROUP QUESTIONED KERRY’S MILITARY RECORD, AND ACCORDING TO SOME ACCOUNTS, HELPED CONTRIBUTE TO HIS DEFEAT IN 2004."

INITIAL BROADCAST: "FUNDED BY A WEALTHY REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN DONOR, THE GROUP SMEARED KERRY’S MILITARY RECORD, AND POSSIBLY COST HIM THE ELECTION."

This episode was refed to stations on Tuesday, July 31; it is the only version that will be aired from here forward.

Thank you for your feedback and understanding.

Best regards,

Oregon Public Broadcasting
Co-Producer of HISTORY DETECTIVES
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives

Not total redemption, but a brave step. Would that the New York Times, Washington Post, and other liberal spin merchants, do the same — “refeed” news they misreport, getting the facts straight at last, or as straight as can be, given the gatekeepers’ uncritical liberal mind-sets. Wouldn’t that be refreshing? Don’t hold your breath.

Culture: Media

Larson is a former association executive and business magazine editor. He is not the cartoonist of the same name. Larson is a regular columnist at Intellectual Conservative.
outing@earthlink.net

‘History Detective’ defaces history

Recent Comments

IC Arizona

Meta

IC Blog

IC Authors

Site info