My letter to the History Channel

[kedo1981]

My letter to the History Channel


To whom it may concern
As an avid fan of your Cable channel and a serious history buff I must express my dismay at your new show “Psychic History”, what place does this kind of nonsense have on your network?

The teaching and presenting of historical facts is the reason the History Channel exists, not to perpetuate the worst kind of populous deceptions like TV psychics. History is built on the achievements and actions of extraordinary individuals and the struggles of the masses, to air programming, and present this obvious fraud as genuine and factual flies in the face of both concepts.
Giants like Ben Franklin and Galileo struggled against this kind of nonsense; whereas the masses I speak of have been taken advantage of by the very kind of lies that you seem to happily promote with this program.

Your “psychic friend” “John Holland” used techniques of cold reading that have been discredited in numerous ways over the years, and I tell you he’s not even very good at it. I’m sure the entire viewing audience was simply stunned when Mr. Holland walks into a workshop and using his amazing powers exclaimed “THINGS WERE MADE HERE” whoooo dude ya think.
Now, I am aware that you are in business to make money, sell commercial time and so forth, but does that mean you have to deceive your audience, and make no mistake, in presenting this fellow as the real deal, genuine psychic, is a deception. History is about what is real, not playing to ignorance. WWBFD “What would Ben Franklin do?” The History Channel, while it should be in business to make profit, also has a higher order of responsibility to it’s viewers to present factual programming; don’t let us down.

I enjoy a good ghost story, your programs about “haunted castles” are “FUN” to watch, and the shows you produce about Harry Houdini and his exposing the “psychics of his day for the blood sucking parasites that they are have been very enjoyable. You have presented many programs about the history of “witch craft” trials, the victims of which were countless innocent men, women and children (innocent because THERE NO SUCH THING AS SURPERNATUAL POWERS) who were murdered because of an ignorant belief in the paranormal. These programs presented facts as; at least as well as we can know them; their goal was to combat the ignorance that seems to unfortunately run deep in humanity. By presenting the TV psychic as genuine “Psychic History” promotes this cancer of ignorance.

I sure there is a substantial number of viewers who chose to believe in this nonsense, and feel that loud mouth skeptics are closed minded and just out ruin all the fun, but if its fun to have a black hood of fear placed over your head and a noose of ignorance tighten around the neck of mankind then I’ll gladly close my mind to this stuff. That just places me; most humbly; in the company of Ben Franklin, Harry Houdini, Carl Sagan, James Randi and Pen and Teller (let them loose on this guy and see how he stands up).

Here’s an idea let John Holland prove he has powers, heck there’s even a million dollar prize floating around out there for the person who proves the paranormal exists, you can contact the James Randi Educational foundation about that, baring that, there are many folks who would love to see proof, why not get some viewers from both sides of the fence and come up with a testing protocol for John and see what he can do. Promote the heck out of it on your channel; big add dollars, lots of publicity to go around, could be good for everybody.
Can’t wait to see how this works out
Yours Truly
K Be***********n “Skeptical Jerk wade”

[Dragonrock]

Excellent. I'm off to eat a Taco in your honor.

[Meffy]

*applause*

Wish I'd seen it so I could write them about how much I wished I hadn't seen it after all. Erm, you know what I mean.

[hgc]

Excellent letter, kedo. My congratulations.

...The History Channel, while it should be in business to make profit, also has a higher order of responsibility to it’s viewers to present factual programming; don’t let us down.
...But, you're dreaming here. The owners of the History Channel -- The Walt Disney Company, GE and Hearst -- see no higher responsibility for their product than what will make the most money. If they could take your letter and sell it as ass-wipe, they would gladly do it. Turn it off. Hit them where it hurts.

[slingblade]

It's a great letter, and needs to be said loudly and often, and I applaud you for doing so.

but the punctuation is very shaky and may deduct credibility points....sorry, but there it is.

[Ducky]

Mine was :

Dear History Channel,

Who was the halfwit that thought a "psychic history" show was a good idea? Are you looking to take a giant sh** on what little credibility you have left? Here's an idea. Stop producing shows based on retarded notions of bible code prophecy or nostradamus being accurate and for damn sure don't produce a show about psychic history when everything the psychic says is obviously based on media archives.

Thanks for helping me to weed down what channels I subscribe to. I just asked Comcast to remove your service from my bill. I'll stick to National Geographic channel, or the Science Channel because they're not so obviously out to make a buck as to produce the most asenine show in the history of asenine shows.

And to make my point further: your show, in my not so humble opinion, is even worse than the "Elvis is alive and was a government agent" debacle Bill Bixby hosted.

That's right, you out-crapped Bill Bixby as a conspiracy theorist. Do you now understand how bad that was?

Fire whatever producer put that bullsh** on the air.

Yours,

David Federlein.

I don't think I earned myself any friends at the station, but it needed to be said.

[T'ai Chi]

I’m sure the entire viewing audience was simply stunned...


You should sign up for the Million Dollar Challenge with your mindreading skills.


(innocent because THERE NO SUCH THING AS SURPERNATUAL POWERS)


Please provide evidence for your claim above.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Turn it off. Hit them where it hurts.

Unless you are a Nielson household, that will accomplish nothing.

[Ducky]

Please provide evidence for your claim above.


He doesn't need to. Since no one has ever provided evidence of supernatural powers, then it is only logical to assume there are none.

[slingblade]

And it's almost POST TIME, ladies and gents, please place your bets!

:D

[fuelair]

You should sign up for the Million Dollar Challenge with your mindreading skills.



Please provide evidence for your claim above.

Read rules/take challenge and/or get real....That claim has been so over-evidenced. Never mind close your mind back up - not my problem.

[fuelair]

Unless you are a Nielson household, that will accomplish nothing.

Contact the sponsers of that AND HCs' other shows.

[kedo1981]

Oh wait!
I’m seeing a B, a Y, could be BY, there’s more BY, ME, BY ME? That mean anything no, perhaps BY T ME; that mean any thing; no.

Face it CHI your team is a no show in this game

[hgc]

Unless you are a Nielson household, that will accomplish nothing.Hit them symbolically then. Their resident psychic will tell them you're not watching anymore. :)

[SPQR]

I sent this one not too long ago:

I am thoroughly disgusted with the wave of credulity that has overcome The History Channel recently. "UFO Files" I could take. I watched that show sometimes for a good laugh. I could even bear the multitude of shows featuring Nostradamus and his "amazing predictions", despite the fact that the least amount of dissenting views were presented; in a two hour long show featuring Nostradamus, no more than twenty minutes were dedicated to those who provided evidece to the contrary to the claim that Nostradamus had the ability to predict the future accurately. Your upcoming show "Psychic History" however, is the last straw.

Never mind the fact that no "psychic" of any kind has ever scientifically proven the existence of his or her powers, the amount of stock you put in the "gift" of this John Holland is disturbing. Your History Channel website claims that Mr. Holland makes "amazing observations" regarding the Waco tragedy. Instead of bringing Mr. Holland to a place where an event that was national news for several weeks took place, how about bringing him to a place where a still somewhat mysterious historical event happened, such as the site of the 1890s Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota or the site of the pilgrim settlement on Roanoke Island that mysteriously disappeared?
If Mr. Holland's "gift" still amazes you after doing this, you might want to alert him to the million dollars he could win through the James Randi Educational Foundation. All Mr. Holland would have to do would be to apply for The Million Dollar Challenge at www.randi.org and set up a test of his abilities with mutually assured upon, i.e. Mr. Holland and the JREF, criteria. Mr. Holland would than demonstrate his abilities and go home a million dollars richer. Mr. Holland literally has nothing to lose.

Until Mr. Holland wins the million dollars, thereby demonstrating his abilities to the world, you can expect the complete banishment of The History Channel from my household.

I am sending this e-mail as a reply to the automated viewer relations response I received because I would like a human response of some type.

I probably should have mentioned the few good show The History Channel has put out, such as the one about Houdini mentioned in the OP, but I didn't have the patience.

BTW, great letter kedo. :D

[Dark Jaguar]

I tuned in for exactly 3 minutes (except that that's not exact). What I saw was... interesting...

It consisted of a psychic who we are apparently supposed to assume is completely out of touch with history. This guy walks onto a scene where some military stuff was done. Unfortunatly I forget some of the details but basically he was asked what he "feels". The guy describes the feeling of some sort of "betrayal" like a "double agent" situation. The person with him, apparently she was some military expert or something says "that's right, that is what happened, go on".

...what? Am I supposed to believe that it is MORE plausible that the guy got his information via psychic powers than it is he got it from a 5 minute search of Wikipedia? Due to that lady's confirmation of his "reading", it is obvious that information wasn't a secret and was readily available to the public.

IS THAT WHAT PASSES FOR A PSYCHIC READING THESE DAYS? Are people so uneducated in general that the idea of someone actually seeking out knowledge of the world around them seems more unlikely than psychic phenomenon?

Yeah, I decided to turn to the lesser of two evils and watch a rerun of "Robot Chicken" instead. At least that show admits it is horrible.

[Polaris]

Excellent letter, kedo. My congratulations.

But, you're dreaming here. The owners of the History Channel -- The Walt Disney Company, GE and Hearst -- see no higher responsibility for their product than what will make the most money. If they could take your letter and sell it as ass-wipe, they would gladly do it. Turn it off. Hit them where it hurts.

Maybe he could tell them he's related to Kevin.

[Dcdrac]

Could you add a bit about its intermainabvle coverage of WW2 and the Nazis as well

[Achán hiNidráne]

My problem is that no matter how well worded a the angry letter or how sincere the boycott, the quest to sweep woo from the media is quixotic at best. Face it, how many active skeptics are there? Even if every skeptic in America were to turn off avoid the nonsense they broadcast, it won't make a dent on their profits. For every one of us who turns off History Channel in protest of programs that try to give credibility to the credulous, there are likely a 1000 woo woos and curiosity seekers who are more than willing to watch. Thus the advertising money will still come in, and they continue to make bulls hit documentaries promoting UFO and psychic scam artists.

Of course, I agree that we shouldn't have to watch anything that we don't care to, so by all means turn of the garbage. However, let's not delude ourselves into thinking that these little boycotts actually matter to anyone but ourselves. They certainly don't matter to the History Channel.

[jman19999]

My problem is that no matter how well worded a the angry letter or how sincere the boycott, the quest to sweep woo from the media is quixotic at best. Face it, how many active skeptics are there? Even if every skeptic in America were to turn off avoid the nonsense they broadcast, it won't make a dent on their profits. For every one of us who turns off History Channel in protest of programs that try to give credibility to the credulous, there are likely a 1000 woo woos and curiosity seekers who are more than willing to watch. Thus the advertising money will still come in, and they continue to make bulls hit documentaries promoting UFO and psychic scam artists.

Of course, I agree that we shouldn't have to watch anything that we don't care to, so by all means turn of the garbage. However, let's not delude ourselves into thinking that these little boycotts actually matter to anyone but ourselves. They certainly don't matter to the History Channel.

Agreed,

It's all about money and ratings. The sensationalistic rituals and supernatural mumbo-jumbo appeal to the masses and draw the ratings. It is most unfortunate that so much of the factual scientific world that shapes man's knowledge, creativity, and reason, has been swallowed by political correctness and producers of such of such "fantasy fluff."

The good news is that there is enough quality programing that still strives to be reality based in reason, fact, and knowldege. What Mark said is absolutely true, we always have the individual freedom of choice to turn off the garbage that we don't want to see.

Jeff

[Ducky]

Maybe he could tell them he's related to Kevin.


Kevin Federline?

'Cause that's not the same as Federlein.

[Dustin Kesselberg]

The letters should look more professional and less rude and childish. Working on grammar and spelling is a main thing. Keeping it short and to the point is another thing. I doubt they will read long and drawn out letters.
Also provide your credentials to help add to the effect.

[Almo]

What Dustin said. A few short points about a channel with "History" in its name touting pseudoscience, and why that's bad for their reputation.

[Bikewer]

Does anyone have an e-mail or corporate adress for these folks? all I could see on the site was the silly automated device which didn't seem useful for complaints.

[SPQR]

Does anyone have an e-mail or corporate adress for these folks? all I could see on the site was the silly automated device which didn't seem useful for complaints.

Send a complaint or something through the automated service and shortly after you do you will recieve an e-mail from the History Channel stating that they received your complaint. You should be able to reply to that.

That's the way I did it. If anyone else has a better way, feel free to post.

:D