Before the blogosphere, I keep wondering how many times we've been lied to by the MSM, or how many times they've put their spin on things.
I was in Vegas a few months back for NAB 2005 (which is a convention for broadcasters). They had some kind of symposium one day that had "luminaries" such as Sam Donaldson, who spewed that we should be careful about blogs because they can spread disinformation.
(Yeah. I'm sure C-BS and the whole Rathergate thing was such a treasure trove of truth too.)
Luckily, I did not attend that particular meeting, because I think I'd die laughing.
What is MSM?
Mainstream Media.
Believe it or not, many on the left are equally bothered by the irresponsiblity prominate in journalism today as many on the right are.
MSM = Main Stream Media ie. the three major TV companies (ABC, CBS, NBC) and a few large newspapers. In other words that which existed prior to the internet, cable TV and the blogs.
The greatest enemy of the liberalism is a free and open internet which allows the undiluted exchange of ideas and information. That's why they have tried to discredit the blogs. They continue to maintain that bloggers are not journalists and no doubt feel that they can't be historians either. Once they realize that bloggers have crediblity, it is only a matter of time before they attempt to control content on the net. That is their only way of maintaing their control of information.
Inspite of its abuses, we need to resist any and all controls or limitations on the internet.
Power to the people.
Information is power therfore-
Information to the people!
Thanks for this topic, something I think about a lot these days. I like to browse History sections in bookstores, and it's interesting that almost all history worth recording has to do with war -- something liberals are congenitally unable to deal with rationally anymore. The history of human beings is the history of war. History is being made right now but to read the MSM one would never know it. War history is far more than the numbers of casualties (I say this as an observer who is anything but an expert on history, by the way). Strategy, tactics, the great players, feats of heroism as well as the politics of the times all play crucial roles in well-documented military history. We have an academentia (I wish I could claim I invented that word) virtually incapable of understanding or even identifying many of these aspects. Heroism? Strategy and tactics? I'm not dissing Stephen Ambrose and the like here, but beyond them there is very little familiarity in our journalists with these concepts and it shows. MSM write-ups of fighting in Iraq are an embarrassment. Thank God we have bloggers and journalists like Michael Yon and the milbloggers to keep history honest, and I believe they will.
It used to be that Hollywood was capable of doing a decent job of depicting history and war. I think Oliver Stone, Steven Bochco and their ilk have laid that idea to rest. I see a whole new bumper crop of movies coming that are terrorist-friendly and anti-American -- Jason Apuzzo has the dirt:
link...
My guess is history will not be kind to this era of the MSM, academia, or Hollywood, to name 3 institutions that are more enemy than friend.
I have to agree with Peg. For a brief time I tried posting a synopsis on the history of a civil war general (Thomas jackson to be precise). I probably would have gotten more hits if I had put a VW Micro Bus up for sale.
Wasn't that it was poorly written (it might have been lol) it was just never read
i killed the site shortly after.
My niece just started her freshman year in high-school.
She doesn't have to take history this year AND SHE'S REALLY HAPPY ABOUT IT!
I informed her otherwise...
She's not really happy about that at all!
You see... I've been paying my niece a nice bounty for excellent grades, since she started the 4th grade (it's a major source of income for her).
I recently told her that she won't get one thin dime from me if she doesn't pass my history class.
We're going to use every possible tool to learn our history. In detail. Because it's important!
It's also fun! I promised my niece it would be so, and it WILL be!
I encourage ALL of you to learn your history well and accurate. Then share it with those who don't know it.
History really is fun and interesting!
Derek
Matt,
You are right on the money with this analysis. I am an aspiring academic, an historian, but agree with all that you have said here. unfortunately, I do not have much respect for many of my colleagues.
Who is this Canadian historian? I monitor about 50 milblogs per day, and am adding more all the time, and have even considered changing my dissertation topic to cover milblogs. Even if I do not do that, I am thinking of setting up a massive database to store as many entries as I can for future analysis. Thus, I would like to talk to this other historian, to see what he is doing and how. If you could email me and put me in touch with him, I would greatly appreciate it.
Keep up the good work!
Sean,
Perhaps he will see your comment and email you.
One of the biggest complaints that I have with the Education system is revisionist history and the lack of knowledge being passed on to our children.
I have an 18 yr old that just graduated and a 15 yr old honor student that’s beginning the 11th grade. With this weekends opening of the movie “The Great Raid” and the past weeks anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I took the opportunity to discuss WW2 with them and neither one had heard of the atrocities perpetuated by the Japanese in the early 20th century.
Bataan, Corregidor, and Nanking meant nothing to them, however they were taught about the irresponsibility of the US government for murdering civilians in that week in August in 1945.
Interestingly enough, the 18 year old loved the movie “The Last Samurai” because of its depiction of the Japanese value of “Honor”. I am proud to say that he will be following my footsteps in October by spending three lovely weeks at MCRD San Diego where he will try to earn the title “U.S. Marine”.
Semper Fi.
DS
Matt,
I too share your disdain and distrust of most of our Institutions of Higher Learning. Or higher un-learning perhaps. Its really hard to beleive in this day and age that some of our Ivy league schools were actually founded as Seminaries. That will tell you the progress that the radical left has made over the years.
Thanks for sharing this very important point. I have a 2-year old son and a daughter due on Thanksgiving Day and I have already given up on public eduacation in this country. It's like I'm going to have to move Heaven and Earth to make sure that my kids don't get their world views polluted by the left wing whackos that are permeating the school system.
Good post Froggy....
-Steve O.
My daughter spent her 3 jr.high school years learning about Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Mesopatamia... The kids are bored and really dont want to know. Every year I complain to that teacher, who is a Gulf War Vet, he says he doesn't like it & has no choice. At the end of each school year he brings in, on his own, movies about WWII. The kids love it and want more. This is a Catholic school. I'm an American paying for this. Then I find out, Ancient Mesopatamia is Iraq. My child spent 3yrs learning about a Country that hates us? So now I hear that during her H.S. years, she may have 1 yr of American History. I have been teaching her at home. We'll watch something on the History Ch., then go on line and research it.
Right on Froggy! And to all you who understand the importance of teaching history to the next gen- I salute you! The ignorance of the average American on U.S. history, let alone world history, is truly disturbing. All this week, I've been going nuts with all the hand wringing over Hiroshima and Nagasaki by people who never heard of the Rape of Nanking.
Peg C. - don't lose hope yet: I just got home from seeing "The Great Raid". Please everyone- go see it. It is a fine movie, and we have to show Hollywood what they've been doing wrong by showing them what they finally did right! The intro gives a good historical setup to the events of the movie, the characters are normal, not weird angst ridden overly-dramatic actors pretending to be soldiers like we see all too often in movies. The portrayal of the Rangers as a highly trained, motivated, skilled force is right on, especially in that it really plays up the precision and teamwork that go into an operation. The Filipino resistance finally gets some well deserved attention, and the Japs are portrayed as the bad guys they were. They even said 'japs'. I can't say it's quite to the level of Saving Private Ryan, it's less intense in terms of the combat footage, and the underlying story is pretty straightforward- but credit should be given Miramax for making this movie, and Dahl for directing it. The attention to detail in the equipment and wardrobe was outstanding. My only criticism is that not all the characters were developed enough, but it's already over two hours, so I guess you can only ask for so much.
Oh, and MSM complaining that bloggers are not journalists? Journalists aren't even journalists anymore!
GO SEE "THE GREAT RAID"!
Doug -- reviewers out here in LA universally panned the Great Raid?
Their reasons? Too "heroic" and black/white simplicity, not enough shades of grey and empathy for the enemy. Seriously. LAT was the worst.
douglas, I thought of "The Great Raid" right after writing that. I've read all the great things the LAT considers to be its failings and Hollywood did somehow miraculously get one right. We saw a TV ad for it last night and I commented that of course it had to be about WWII for them to get it right. Nothing more recent is allowed to be portrayed positively.
My bet is it will be a generation or two before Hollywood does anything on the Iraq war right. Probably not until most of current Hollywood is dead (can't happen soon enough).
I'm going to see The Great Raid later today. Thanks for the review! I read the book 'Ghost Soldiers' by Hampton Sides over a year ago and was excited to see this movie coming out. I highly recommend 'Ghost Soldiers' for an accurate historical perspective on this event in history.
You're right, Derek, history is fun!
I agree, Peg, ...can't happen soon enough for me either!
It was interesting to me also, how many older folks were in the audience. I wondered how many stories were in that audience as I sat there. Were they there? Perhaps they lost a relative? Maybe they served elsewhere... I wonder what they could tell us all about real history. If you have young people in your life, and older people in your life- get them together to talk about history. I can't think of any better way to make history interesting than to hear about it first hand- even the 'mundane' bits about everyday life in the depression, or on the home front during WWII, or what the 60's were really like for the average American...and if they are someone important to you, it's a good time to get out the video camera!
Matthew:
This is a problem that also troubles me greatly. Horowitz writes about it quite a bit in his writings, most recently "Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left". When you have basically Communists like Howard Zinn writing history textbooks that are becoming a staple in NEA-approved American schools, we have a big problem on our hands. Books like "A Patriot's Guide to American History" are a good start (assuming of course that the teachers unions and school boards even let the students see it), but I fear you are correct: it is going to be mostly up to we in the new media to carry this torch. Speaking of the torch, I would recommend highly the website of the same name "The Torch" (http://www.thefire.org/index.php/torch/) which deals with the subject of the attempted takeover of our educational system by the American left.
Keep up the good work. I read you every day.
Charles Waldie (aka 'The Discerning Texan')
Matt,
Once again you have delivered another hard punching masterpiece, on a subject that is very close to my hart.
Guys you must ensure that your history is preserved in a correct and accurate manor. Take it from someone whose countries history has been altered so as to accommodate the now generation. I know my countries past are not all to be proud of and that there are many thing to be ashamed of. But it is our past and between all the many wrongs there are many writes as well, lessons to be learned and achievements to use as guidelines for the future.
The way our history books have been rewritten my daughter will someday look at me and her grandfather, not as roll models but as something to be ashamed of. Not that we did those things, we just happened to live in that time. And I will be left to constantly remind her of the way things actually where. A man, an American man not to long ago asked me if there is a factual non political, truthful book on South Africa’s history. After days of searching I had to tell him, NO! Please don’t let this happen to your great, proud country and its history.
The US is my guide for hope that maybe, just maybe one day the record be set straight and the hole truth be told about our history. Who knows, they might just rewrite the history books again!!!!
Take care and stand TALL!!!
Jan.
As I earned my B.A. way, way, way back in 1980 and just recently earned my Ed. M. in 2004. I can tell you from personal experience that higher education has gotten worse in the last twenty years.
When I was an undergraduate I rarely knew what my professors' political leanings were. Today, I know that fully half of my teachers hate Bush and think the United States is clearly at fault for much of the world's problems. It really is kind of sad.
But I think the good news is that there are enough students with a healthy skepticism who don't buy into this indoctrination. So the next generation still has hope!
Charles, I got my B.A. in the mid-70's (in psychology -- huge mistake). Women's Studies was just coming into being and had not been turned into whole departments and "disciplines" yet (scare quotes around disciplines intentional). Academia has gone straight down the toilet since the 70's. I have zero respect for anyone with a Women's Studies degree. The whole thing consists of White Men Bad. Gimme a frickin' break.
Liberal Arts departments and degrees are a joke and only churn out mindless lefties. I can attest to the fact that it can take 20+ years to overcome the indoctrination. I've decided it's the closest thing to assimilation by the Borg, being indoctrinated into lefty-think. If I had kids in their late teens now I'd be disuading them from college altogether -- and I come from a background where that literally was inconceivable.
That's how bad it is, IMO.
My mother, who was a school girl pre-WWII, learned about the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia early in her high school years.
Post WWII, after being handed off like a hot potato to Stalin at Yalta, the Baltic states were completely dropped from history classes.
The first time I ever heard of Latvia was in college, and then only because I met my future husband, son of Latvian refugees to America. Even today, with an independent, democratic Latvia--a true historical triumph of the post-Cold War years--most people are shockingly ignorant of its existence.
Which is why I posted the entire saga of my in-laws' escape from tyranny in May 2005, during Pres. Bush's visit to Latvia.
I see your point. It is kind of like..what if a 9/11 game came out, and anyone can sit around in there underwear eating chips and re-inact that day....God help us.
Well, having worked for three colleges and attended two, I have developed an opinion of my own. Two were Catholic (as was my undergrad) and the one where I am now is not. Though this year we are getting a spiritual center (BECAUSE THE STUDENTS REQUESTED IT) and your's truly is getting it named 
It's a difficult thing and frankly, THIS BLOG has saved my sanity more than once. Jeez, just to "be around" like minded people!
Here's the deal as I see it. In addition to the mindless anti-establishment lefty stuff (which I don't want to underestimate because lots of it is dangerous and what's worse, they would think that's laughable). Since the 60's, higher education has undergone a tug of war between two factions: the side that believes colleges are places that should present balanced info and let their students make up their own minds and the side that believes that the role of higher education is to provide a contrast in EVERYTHING. Generally, this can be broken down by professors and not so much the institutions. I think colleges are run by people who are more tempered and appeal to the Board of Trustees (who hires them), largely business sorts, who understand the role of temperment and balance in running a college. Still, we all have discussed the role of moral relativism. It is ALIVE AND WELL on many campuses today and in books written by respected people. In my masters program, which I completed in January of '04, I cannot tell you the indoctrination that they tried. My advisor, with whom I know have a semi strained relationship, REALLY imposed her views and so did some of the professors she brought in. Right after 9-11, we had a speaker talk about the Patriot Act. I asked her if her group didn't like the Patriot Act, could the propose something else in its place that accomplishes what it aimed to do but does it in a way that doesn't infringe on rights. DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS response. The problem: "I" didn't understand the real issues and needed to be educated (what is this, a gulag?!) Apparently, all laws that we needed we on the books before, as though the ACLU wasn't going to fight the government tooth and nail to "protect us." (She wasn't from the ACLU, but close). The professor in the class called me a Pat Buchanan, IN FRONT OF THE CLASS. I pointed out to her that I taught a freshmen seminar at the college where I worked at the time, precisely because many of our students were first generation college students (and a lot of legal immigrants) and I wanted to help them get four year degrees. It wasn't for the 600 bucks a semester when the class met 14 times. I think when I counter with this sometimes, or some other point, people stare dumbly because they cannot believe that someone from the Right has any compassion. It's as though they are genuinly programed to believe that a person cannot dislike illegal immigration AND like immigrants at the same time. And I do like them, that's how my family got here, LEGALLY, when the country minded its borders and KEPT TRACK!
Women's studies programs: I could not agree with Peg more. Where I work now I could take those classes for FREE and do not. I love history but not the re-writing kind. Are some men jerks? Of course! Let me also tell you about the wife of a Marine that I write who is trying to take his house with bogus charges of abuse (the house he owned for years before they got married). Interesting, since he's been ON A SHIP FOR THE PAST YEAR! Thank goodness he got her on tape saying she really wanted the house and if he gives it to her, she'll call off the dogs. Meanwhile, he has supervised visits with his kids. Nice freakin homecoming. Oh, and their kids sometimes sleep at her boyfriend's house. Nice. Neither gender has the monopoly on bad behavior.
Blogs have changed things completely. The public has an expectation now that the MSM may not be telling the truth and of course, any group who loses it monopoly is shrill and incomprehensible.
Thanks for this blog, Froggy!
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