A Brief History of The “History” Channel
Posted by mattusmaximus on April 3, 2012
I have long lamented the slow, downward spiral into an abyss of stupidity taken by networks such as The “History” Channel in recent years. It started when a student of mine expressed his shock at seeing a show about “ancient aliens” building the pyramids on THC; fortunately my student knew it was a steaming pile of woo. As a way of giving you some idea of how THC has gone all the way down the rabbit hole of pseudoscience and complete nonsense in its quest for ratings, I would like to pass along to you this humorous graphic I stole from my skeptical colleague Kylie Sturgess. It sums the whole thing up nicely… 🙂
The Skeptical Teacher 
klausekilski said
so true…
Glen Green said
Sad but true and yet I marvel at the decline in the History channel. History has so many fantastic stories, by all rights it should be both educational and entertaining at the same time. So, if that premise is true (that history can be entertaining), and if entertainment equals ratings, then why the decline? Are these shows propagating bunk more entertaining? Are they cheaper to produce? Were the history stories poorly executed and a bore in spite of their engaging ‘source material’? (And if so, why?)
I often hear people say that they don’t watch (let alone read) the news because it is, ‘depressing’. Is history depressing? – I wouldn’t think so… Certainly much of history had a ‘happy ending’ of sorts.