"History" and the History Channel

[John Beaman]

This thread likely should be in the movies forum, but I’ll place it here for the moment because of the thread, below, about Robert Johnson and possibly Egon Mayer.

I would be VERY careful of accepting any “history” from the History Channel’s “Dogfight” series. They have shown that accuracy is not their forte not just in this series but other shows. The one about Steve Ritchie and his MiG kills over Vietnam is an example. Steve was from a small town about 20 miles from my town. When he returned from Vietnam, I spent a lot of time with him about his missions and his airplanes, looking at hundreds of photos. The program used so many inappropriate photos and movie clips it is sad. They spent a lot of time on his mission of July-10-72 where he shot down 2 MiGs. Not once in photos, movies, or the “recreation” did they show his plane was an F-4E. All they ever showed was his last F-4D. Even then they showed other F-4Ds as if they were his. They showed the F-4D in its final markings, done several days after his 5th kill in August, as if it was the F-4E he flew in July. Other stills and movie clips were also in the wrong chronology or setting.

I guess the editors and producers thing the public will not know the difference. Indeed perhaps the editors and producers do not, so it’s all right to produce something as “history”, however wrong. The problem is, if you get all that wrong, what else might you have played lose and fast with the facts. Frankly, such shows call into question a series or a producer/editor’s intentions, aside from ratings. I guess that’s the bottom line: whatever works. Unfortunately, I run into people who ask questions about historical events I am familiar with, and their opening remark is, Well, I saw it on the History Channel”. After all, it is, in the end, “Hollywood”, not history. Caveat Imperator.