History Channel's Propaganda Lineup-Unbelievable

2PM: Horrors of Hussein
3PM: Sons of Saddam
4PM: Saddam's Secret Tunnels
and my favorite:
5PM: Osama & Saddam

Nothing like mentioning two men in the same breath that have NOTHING to do with one another. Reinforcing the now-debunked connection between Saddam and Al Qaida.

I liked the History Channel better when it was the Hitler Channel.

i used to like that channel. who owns it, btw?

... which are owned by The Hearst Corporation, I believe.

Hearst also owns:

The San Francisco Chronicle
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Houston Chronicle
Cosmopolitan
Esquire
O, The Oprah Magazine
Popular Mechanics
Seventeen
Town & Country
27 different local television stations

Just to name a few...

the fine hand of NewsCorp (Rupert Murdoch)

see the whole list

From A&E:

A&E Network, a joint venture of The Hearst Corporation, ABC, Inc. and NBC, first launched in February, 1984, and now has over 78 Million subscribers.Emmy Award-winning A&E Network offers discerning viewers a unique blend of original programming, featuring its signature series BIOGRAPHY, intriguing mysteries, original dramas, and engaging documentaries.

This must be why Pattys boyfriend got a little touched up before she left with her new freinds <sarcasm>

http://www.davidicke.net/tellthetruth/history/hearst.html
William Hearst - Friend of Hitler

William Randolph Hearst is the name of a multi-millionaire who sought to help the Nazis in their psychological warfare against the Soviet Union. Hearst was a well-known US newspaper proprietor known as the 'father' of the so-called 'yellow press', i.e., the sensationalist press. William Hearst began his career as a newspaper editor in 1885 when his father, George Hearst, a millionaire mining industrialist, Senator and newspaper proprietor himself, put him in charge of the San Francisco Daily Examiner.

This was also the start of the Hearst newspaper empire, an empire which strongly influenced the lives and thinking of North Americans. After his father died, William Hearst sold all the mining industry shares he inherited and began to invest capital in the world of journalism. His first purchase was the New York Morning Journal, a traditional newspaper which Hearst completely transformed into a sensationalist rag. He bought his stories at any price, and when there were no atrocities or crimes to report, it behoved his journalists and photographers to 'arrange' matters. It is this which in fact characterises the 'yellow press': lies and 'arranged' atrocities served up as truth.

These lies of Hearst's made him a millionaire and a very important personage in the newspaper world. In 1935 he was one of the richest men in the world, with a fortune estimated at $200 million. After his purchase of the Morning Journal, Hearst went on to buy and establish daily and weekly newspapers throughout the US. In the 1940s, William Hearst owned 25 daily newspapers, 24 weekly newspapers, 12 radio stations, 2 world news services, one business providing news items for films, the Cosmopolitan film company, and a lot of others. In 1948 he bought one of the US's first TV stations, BWAL-TV in Baltimore. Hearst's newspapers sold 13 million copies a day and had close to 40 million readers. Almost a third of the adult population of the US were reading Hearst newspapers every day. Furthermore, many millions of people throughout the world received information from the Hearst press via his news services, films and a series of newspapers that were translated and published in large quantities all over the world. The figures quoted above demonstrate how the Hearst empire was able to influence American politics, and indeed world politics, over very many years - on issues which included opposition to the US entering the Second World War on the side of the Soviet Union and support for the McCarthyite anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s.

William Hearst's outlook was ultra-conservative, nationalist and anti-communist. His politics were the politics of the extreme right. In 1934 he travelled to Germany, where he was received by Hitler as a guest and friend. After this trip, Hearst's newspapers became even more reactionary, always carrying articles against socialism, against the Soviet Union and especially against Stalin. Hearst also tried to use his newspapers for overt Nazi propaganda purposes, publishing a series of articles by Goering, Hitler's right-hand man. The protests of many readers, however, forced him to stop publishing such items and to withdraw them from circulation
(snip)

after seeing some of the "historical" films Disney has turned out, I'll now take the History Channel with a grain of salt.

For example, Pocahanas did not marry John Smith, but every school child who has seen the movie will tell you she did. It was probably simpler to write the story that way.

Remember the Titans? TC Williams was not integrated in 1972. It was integrated the day it opened its door in September 1965. It does not look like the school in the movie, it is much newer. When you merge three schools together, you are going to have three "top jocks" all trying to be the one "top jock". All of a sudden they all have to prove themselves all over again. That part where they got on two racially separate busses was probably three busses separated by previous school. But it was simpler to make it a racial thing.

...And Disney wanted to open an Historical theme park near Manassas!
Imagine how that would have distorted history! (Tones of outrage)

except for C-Span1/2 and TCM


(on edit add cartoon-network and comedy-central);

...most of the History Channel shows are about how the masses, little guys, etc., get the shaft from some monster in power. Apparently, it has always been that way and to date, nothing seems to have changed. Anyone want to hustle out and build a pyramid?

Prescott Bush - Friend to Nazis
George HW Bush - Friend to Saddam, and seller of WMD's
Neil Bush - screws Colorado Tax Payers
Finally - George W. Bush - Thief, Liar and Warmonger

I have no qualms about the lineup, because the fact remains, from a human rights perspective, that Saddam blows. The fact also remains that Gulf War II blows. Similarly, Osama blows.

I have a hard time believing though, that a program on Saddam and Osama, if conducted by historians, would reinforce a connection between the two. It would probably focus more on their differences, since there is, in fact, no proven connection between them.

Dob Bole

Picture Saddam and Rummie shaking hands! Real story would be "Bushco and Saddam: An Enduring Legacy!" History Channel blows!

He deserves to have his balls cut off. But so does Rummy.

Goes right through the U.S. Government

Not that i believe this, mind you, but yesterday on Washington Journal, the mod read a snippet of some hack in the Weekly Standard (i think) who said the Bushies "undersold" the al Qaeda/Saddam connection. He actually was suggesting that it would have been easy to prove the need to attack Iraq because of that "connection".

The mod didn't read enough of it for me to know what evidence this guy was employing, but i can guess that he made some of it up, used already debunked information, and extrapolated beyond any logical reasoning. I'm not willing to read that rag to find out more.

But, there are still folks out there beating that drum. Just thought you should know that the viewpoint that opposes yours is still out there in the national media.
The Professor

no one suggested Saddam is a "good guy"

he also was not in the same league as Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot (or even the neocons under Reagan and the Bushes who killed hundreds of thousands in latin america), yet the History Channel has run and rerun their "tyrants day" programming focusing on Hitler, Stalin and Saddam, like they were a three-man comedy team.

I watched a little of the programming today and it is blatant propaganda. It savages Saddam for using chemical weapons without a peep about the US companies that gave them to him and encouraged their use.

I obviously didn't think that anyone here thought Saddam Hussein was a good guy. Nor did I imply that he was Pol-Pottish. But he still bloweth.

Of course, my post was based on the initial post, and not your new History of the History channel. I was just pointing out that I have no problem with a channel portraying Saddam Hussein as a tyrant. He certainly wasn't in favor of Western Democracy, or even everybody living in one big happy Monastery.

On Edit: I would like to point out that, even though I am not in favor of the death penalty, I am in favor of penis removal surgery for both Saddam and Rumsfeld.

The "History" Channel's programming has always been supportive of the warped, Americanist views of the world and "history". If these tirades on Sadam are so important.. where are the shows about the evils of our puppet leaders in Indonesia, Guatamala, Israel, Egypt, Honduras, El Salvador, Columbia, etc..??

:shrug:

eom

I think it was the Sons of Saddam. I found what I saw to be very informative and as impartially presented as possible. I thought that even though the documentary was honest about the bad things the sons did, it also told the story behind those things and was pretty fair. I'm not anti-war or pro-war, per se. I think going to Iraq was a bad idea and unneccesary and this documentary didn't change that view. I am going to try to catch the other shows as well since I like shows like that, and the History Channel is one of my favorite channels. I find their material to be fair and pretty unbiased in a very biased world.

You need to bone up on your propaganda detector.

If HC ever took the same approach to a doc on the Bush Family Mafia , well never mind, not like that will ever happen.

That doc was complete crap. Interviews with INC people and Shites only. Lots of leeps in logic and unfounded inuendo.

Yes Saddam was bad but leaving out how the US backed him and interviewing only people from groups with a serious anti saddam agaenda is not unbiased documentary film making.

I happen to watch documentaries because I find them to be interesting. And it's been widely documented that the regime was pretty diabolical. If it was all propoganda then why would they even bother reporting how disgusted Saddam was with Uday's behavior? I happen to think the stuff I saw did a decent job in telling the story behind the story. Would you rather have them lie and pretend that the family was normal and sugar and spice? Networks play what people want to watch. Don't blame the History Channel for the viewing preferences of their audience. On another note...The History Channel also somewhat regularly plays the documentary on the USS Liberty, which no other network would touch with a 10 foot pole.

I didn't find what I saw to be unfair or factually lacking. Did you actually watch any of it or are you just reacting to the titles?

less than 24 hours before they were shot?

I honestly don't see where that matters one way or another. There are a lot of shows that talk about Iraq just because we are over there. That's why there's an interest and that's why they air programs like this.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

and thanks for the welcome. Are you a History Channel fan too?

I like the WWII stuff, yep I am a WWII fanatic.

is a historical porno flick.

nor do I wanna, I dont want to see Benito ,Adolf, and Hiteki as in Tojo. wouldnt mind a documentary on them but a porno :puke:

on Saturday Night Live last night!

especially when one of them turned into the General Lee!

At the same time George Bush Snr was supporting Saddam Hussein in Iraq, he was supporting Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

between each shocking episode

Naive to actually not see how these docs are complete propaganda. Sad to see people on this board be so clueless still.

Sooflay ............the restauranteur
Guday...............the half-Australian brother
Huray...............the sports fanatic
Sashay..............the gay brother
Kuntay & Kintay.....the twins from the African mother
Sayhay..............the baseball player
Ojay................the stalker/murderer
Gulay...............the singer/entertainer
Ebay................the internet czar
Biliray.............the country music star
Ecksray.............the radiologist
Puray...............the blender factory owner
Regay...............the half-Jamaican brother
Tupay...............the one with bad hair

Among the sisters:

Lattay..............the coffee shop owner
Bufay...............the 300 pound sister
Dushay..............the clean sister
Phayray.............the zoo worker in the gorilla house
Sapheway............the grocery store owner
Ollay...............the half-Mexican sister
Gudlay..............the prostitute

Finally, there is Oyvey, but the family doesn't like to talk about him.

before there's an accusation of having way too much fun "profiling." LOL

:hangover:

:-)

September 11th: Did Bush Know?

8 PM to 10 PM on 9/11/2004

Now that's one that will be a must see. Come on HC,do your homework....


David

among male viewers 18 and older. The programming is full of documentaries about various wars, especially WWII, and shows with titles like "Tales of the Gun."

There may be a vicious circle at work, as such programming would not only tend to attract Republican-leaning men but would also reinforce their views.

By the way, if you want to see history programs without explosions you need to tune in History Channel International on digital cable. They have more non-war documentaries, including some made in other countries.

Discovery Civ, History, and A & E are now the "War and Crime" channels (and I can remember when A & E turned me onto "Room with a View"). Bravo, until a month ago was what A & E used to be, now it's becoming NBC's dumping ground.

I fear for Trio.

History Channel can be good at times, repetitive and populist at others. Discovery Times (formerly Discovery Civ, now a 'joint venture' with NY Times) has gotten better). Discovery is turning into TLC2 with that Christopher Lowell home decorating crap that my girlfriend loves. National Geographic Channel has it's moments.

It's all hit or miss.

:puke:..

This has been happening for a while.. It's the homogenization of cable.. The old "can't beat 'em?? EAT 'em " strategy..

TLC/Discovery/History/A&E/Civ/Bravo.. they are just shadows of their former selves..

I find myself tuning in for a NEW show, only to discover about 10 minutes in, that all that is NEW, is the promo, and they have just spliced together bits of old "Datelines" and other "mockumentaries" and packaged it as new..


The "thought police" have pretty much hogtied and conquered the "regular" channels, and by BUYING they cable networks, they are gaining control there too.. When we first got cable, there were few commercials and rarely any infomercials.. You could tune in at 3 am and actually SEE something..

They have polluted cable.. I guess the only hope left is to buy an old BIG satellite dish and learn a foreign language :(

So they'll be detailing the years of support for Saddam (with full knowledge of Iraq's use chem weapons) during Reagan/Bush and CIA dealings with Saddam dating back to 1959, right?

Cool!



Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot
By Richard Sale
UPI Intelligence Correspondent


While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.

<snip>

Little attention was paid to Qasim's bloody and conspiratorial regime until his sudden decision to withdraw from the pact(the anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact) in 1959, an act that "freaked everybody out" according to a former senior U.S. State Department official. Washington watched in marked dismay as Qasim began to buy arms from the Soviet Union and put his own domestic communists into ministry positions of "real power," according to this official. The domestic instability of the country prompted CIA Director Allan Dulles to say publicly that Iraq was "the most dangerous spot in the world."

In the mid-1980s, Miles Copeland, a veteran CIA operative, told UPI the CIA had enjoyed "close ties" with Qasim's ruling Baath Party, just as it had close connections with the intelligence service of Egyptian leader Gamel Abd Nassar. In a recent public statement, Roger Morris, a former National Security Council staffer in the 1970s, confirmed this claim, saying that the CIA had chosen the authoritarian and anti-communist Baath Party "as its instrument."

According to another former senior State Department official, Saddam, while only in his early 20s, became a part of a U.S. plot to get rid of Qasim. According to this source, Saddam was installed in an apartment in Baghdad on al-Rashid Street directly opposite Qasim's office in Iraq's Ministry of Defense, to observe Qasim's movements.

It tries to shame JFK for Possibly hiding the fact that he may have had Addisons disease.
What a shameful POS that one was. Its bad enough they are trying to glorify bu$h's oil war, they are also trying to destroy our heroes.

on Saturday: blech!!!!

The announcer was chatting with Tommy Franks about the
History Channel and how much fun TF was having with
the shows.

(does he produce them? consult?)

He said that they don't want repeats so they have to keep
coming up with fresh ideas.

He said that he gets letters (email?) from 9,10,11,12
yr old kids saying how much they like the shows.

He also said that 12 and 13 yr old kids are going into
Recruiting Offices and asking: What can you do for me
when I graduate high school?

another reason i cancelled cable, when you know the other side of the story it makes the programming too apparant and a real turn off.

:hi:

peace

Isn't he one of Bush sr's old friends?

nt

what are u talking about. he was a butcher.

Or an "application" to become 2LT?

The propaganda spin it provides in many instances. and the Hitler Channel! Christ, WW2 happened and all, but have they ever gone 1 day without having a 1 hour program focusing on Hitler specifically or WW2.

A causatory look at that station speaks volumes about society. Almost every other show involes guns or violence... and that is our history.

and posted a similar type thread over in The Media Forum a day or two ago.

Corporate media needs a wake up call - we want the Fairness Doctrine back!

SNL's TV Funhouse "Saddam and Osama"?