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Old 3 January 2001, 07:57 PM   #9 (permalink)
BillyH
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Ray:
In much the same way that a witness in a jury trial owes the defendant, the jury and society the truth, so it is the duty of the historian to report, as accurately as the known facts allow, what happened in the segment of history he has under study, in a truthful manner, without distortion, without a bias, without a slant.
But just as we know that some jurors will lie under oath to bear false witness, there are historians, called revisionists, who have political agendas and will ignore the truth to suit their own ends, or those of their associates; there are even historians who will lie for pay, or out of animosity. A case in point is the so called historian who denies the Holocaust ever occurred.
When we take history to the media, and trade our integrity for money, we are saying we never had any integrity in the first place, if we let others reverse the truth, especially in the lame rationale of making the story interesting. so we can 'put butts in the seats'.
There has been in the moovie/TV industry an antimilitary bias against the American military, and the American serviceman. A good example of this bias is in the movie "Martian Attacks" in which Jack Nicholson shows the Armed Forces (from the generals to the privates) as pure psychotics for wanting to fight the Martians who obliterate and incinerate several thousand people in the reception area. The president lets his advisor talk him out of reprisal by saying the masacre was "a cultural misunderstanding". The Martians proceed to blow America apart, kill even the president, and are only stopped by an old women who plays golden oldies from a radio truck, with the sound acting as a death ray. The advisor end up on a martian 'frisbe' a talking head disconnected from his body, while his erstwhile girl friend exchanges her head for that of her pet dog. I have to admit that this was the first movie that showed how truly stupid appeasement really is.
My advise is that you have to look deeply into the heart of the producer and seek his intent: Is his first duty to the cash register or to the men under those crosses in France.