The History Channel is rewriting history tonight

[Protagoras]

I flip on my cable tonight and what do I see....the Siege...a prophetic movie about they psychosis and rush to throw away rights that follows a terrorist attack in NYC.

It's on the History channel. Now that's strange. I didn't realize it was the MOVIE channel...I'm used to it being the WW2 channel or other such stuffs...I honestly never watch it these past few years.

Then I think...wow, well at least they're showing the Siege and that did speak volumes about where we were headed.

Then at the end of the movie some smiling idiot comes on and say "I'm interviewing History Professor Soandso from Purdue" and Says...Well what did you think of the Siege.

They both share an almost drug induced smile and this joe begins spouting off about how amazing it was to see How totally wrong the siege was because Look how sympathetic it made the Terrorists..Look how competent it made the FBI...look how it tried to Villify the MILITARY who is doing SUCH A FINE JOB IN IRAQ now. yadda yadda yadda...

And the other idiot sat there nodding and smiling a gigantic botox smile.

And I began to drool....my mouth hanging open...how anyone who could call themselves a professor of anything could come on and so thoroughly misrepresent what had happened...what the movie was about...and what is currently happening...HOW ABOUT THOSE DAMN GULAGS DIPSHIT?

*cough* sorry...Anyway so I do a double check...maybe I'm accidently on FAUX NEWS and I just mistook what channel I was on but I wasn't wrong. I was on the HISTORY Channel and it was doing it's best to spin a movie made before 9/11 to show what GREAT people we've been since 9/11.

Because the MOVIE wasn't 100% in predicting 9/11 it's central points mut not only be invalid...they actually (in a brain numbing leap of illogic) Validate everything we are NOW doing.

So I'm stunned...did I miss something? Was I asleep when Murdoch bought out the HIstory Channel? I knew it had gone to hell but I didn't realize it had completely crossed over into being a full on propaganda network for the Neocons.

I's say I'm speachless but I've got plenty to say...and I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

Just starting here at DU...then working my way up thru Comcast.

[DemInDistress]

1. I just saw denzel washington in a movie

I expected some WWII stories.is that right Murdoch bought the History
Channel?

[FVZA_Colonel]

2. You mean The Hitler Channel aired something other than WW2 pieces?

All humor aside, I never thought the movie tried to villify the military, but only the insane general who was given command of New York after martial law was instituted. And "how sympathetic it made the terrorists?" That movie in no way sympathized with them.

[NoSheep]

3. I thought it was going to be the Real Story of Noah's Ark.

:popcorn:

[upi402]

4. Neocons have zero restraint. Must propagandize 100%

They are like 'The Flood' in the X-Box game 'Halo'.
They just come at you and come at you like Stepford moths.

[NNadir]

5. Now this is unusual.

[MadHound]

6. The History Channel rewrites history on a daily basis,

Thus this is no suprise. I've given up watching the channel for anything of educational value. I now watch it for the entertainment value, ie to laugh at how badly it butchers a particular historical subject.

[Kolesar]

7. I found your post hard to follow

Probably because I have not seen "the Siege". The reference to gulags has me bewildered. I went to Purdue for 3 years. God, I hated that place.

[Protagoras]

8. A late night rant, allow me to clarify.

A more lucid rundown.

1. The History Channel used to confine itself to showing documentaries. Tonight, much to my suprise it was showing a major release movie for some reason.

2. The movie was The Siege. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133952/
Staring Denzel Washington from 1998 (year is important here).

"Plot Outline: After the abduction by the US military of a musilm religion leader, New York City become the target of escalating terrorist attacks. Anthony Hubbard, the head of the FBI/NYPD Terrorism Task Force, teams up with CIA operative Elise Kraft to capture the organisation responsible for the terror in NYC. As bomb attacks go on, The US governement decides to send the army into the NYC streets, lead by the General Devereaux, and declares Martial Law."

3. Many people in 1998, after seeing the movie, were shocked at the idea that we might respond to terrorist attacks by giving up civil liberties, detaining Muslims en mass without trials, or engage in torture.

3. After the movie, the History Channel's commentator or whatever he's called brought on a Professor of History from Purdue University who essentially laughed (seriously..laughed) at the film and stated (paraphrased) WOW can you believe how WRONG it was, and how the OPPOSITE OF IT was true..because it:

A) Potrayed the Terrorists as sympathetic (they were human. Irrational, pissed off, and pretty simplistic actually...but not sympathetic...this was a cheap misrepresentation of the movie made to discredit it...i.e. damn those liberal hollywood people think terrorists are fuzzy and nice..)

B) Can you believe that the movie thought they would declair Martial Law in NYC? (assuming a movie in 1998 was trying to exactly prophesize 9/11 is a cheap copout)...They didn't do that at all. (But he fails to mention that thousands of muslims did actually get arrested and detained without trail just like in the movie...and unlike the movie, we've since deported some of them to places like Gitmo...some still may be imprisoned with no charges)

C) The Professor went on to say "And the movie was wrong in portraying the FBI as competent" *cough*...so now we're criticizing a movie in 1998 for having Denzel Washington as the good guy...and he's the only person in the movie who's really doing anything competent so how the lone hero guy gets to somehow become a metaphore for all the Real Life FBI is beyond me but...whatever).

D). Professor X goes on to say "And can you believe that they showed the ARMY as the villians?" Well Bruce Willis does declair martail law...then he detains suspects, tortures them...then kills them.

So when I say...Gulag, I'm references what we know this week about our government setting up secret prisons where we are doing what? Oh yeah...torturing and killing people. AG, Gitmo, now Eastern Europe and apparently some places possibly even within the US now...lovely.

...so as I watched this "professor" come on and offer what was ostendibly supposed to appear to be some kind of PROFESSIONAL critique of the movie...I was appalled that the History Channel was in fact having some partisan hack come on and, in a highly selective fasion, absurdly use a very insightful piece of fiction which warns us of the risks of fascist responses to terrorism...and reinterpret it as if it were itself History to justify and applaud the very acts which the movie exposes as evil, immoral, and stupid.

And to me, that's an amazing thing not because I don't expect FAUX NEWS to get on my cable and spin the shit out of movies, tv shows, events etc...but because it's now infected the more conventionally neutral crap channels like the History Channel...where now, apparently...we're to be shown propaganda pieces and then have political shills come on and puke out neocon propaganda.

Moreover, I was sickened that it was someone who is, apparently, a History Professor doing it...yes, yes I know...they are as diverse as anyone else politically...but it was just such a cynical move for a channel that I didn't really see being part of the Lurch to the RIGHT News Psychosis that's infecting this country.

Sorry if my late night stream of consciousness was less than fully coherent. But I felt like I was getting hit, unexpectedly, in the head with a sack of bricks last night. It was sort of like turning on the Disney Channel and seeing "Triumph of the Will" being shown as an inspirational piece.

The cognitive dissonance just overwhelmed me.

Peace,

Prot.

[Kolesar]

9. Thanks for writing. I don't have much time for a response, though

back to workeee!

[tx_dem41]

11. The History Channel has been showing movies with some

tenuous link to history for at least 10 years. They have some academic "expert" on at the end. Mind candy.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Yeah, But This Is Different, Tex

There is ZERO historical context to this movie, since the events within it never actually happened. At least when they showed the Battle of the Bulge, the movie actually was rooted in something that really happened.

The Siege is a work of fiction. Pure fiction!
The Professor

[tx_dem41]

14. I'm not arguing with you Prof....

Some of their other selections have been basically pure fiction as well. I guess this one hits closer to our home.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. I Think I Knew That

I wasn't arguing either. I was just suggesting that this was more egregious than their other selections, because there is ZERO historical reference on a channel called History!

I was amplifying your point, actually. Just somewhat inelegantly.
The Professor

[ProfessorGAC]

10. I Thought The Same Thing!

I wrote History an email last night. There's nothing historical, in any way, shape or form, about that movie. It's based upon a fictitious event! How can it be history?

Terrible programming decision and i let them know.
The Professor

[Lannes]

13. They are the worst

Its nothing but wall to wall right wing Christian programming Hitler,murder investigations,weapons of war.Everything that has to do with bloodlust.No science unless it relates to war or murder.Modern marvels isnt good anymore.No art history,no music history,no theology unless it relates to Christianity for the most part.I am a Christian but it doesnt mean I want to see the hard right dominate this network.

It started out as a good channel years ago.Now even their History International channel is doing the same thing.Its sick.Yes if you tune in at 5-6 am you might catch something that isnt related to death or murder but its like MTV a music video channel that doesnt show music videos.A history channel without history.Sounds like something out of Orwell.