Talk:History Television

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[edit] Is History Television Really Canadian?

The main reason I ask is because of the much criticized series they continue to run in Canada called "Dogfights". Advertised as either "all the greatest dogfights in history" or "all the world's greatest dogfights" yet it shows ONLY American victories. It is without a doubt the most one-sided, arrogant, egotistical and vain warplane documentary I've ever seen. The one episode they have of a non-American plane is neither a fighter nor about a dogfight, in fact, as criticized, it seems placed just to make the American fighters look even better.

I saw the ridiculous obsolete British Fairey Swordfish(in torpedo runs on the battleship Bismark) in between episodes on the American Hellcat and P51D Mustang(my favourite), as if putting Margaret Thatcher between Jessica Alba and Beonce in a bikini contest and say you're being unbiased.

A bar-tender friend of mine at a Canadian Veteran's Legion Hall said that program itself supposedly caused them to block the 'Canadian' 'History Television'.

You can be damn sure if the American History Channel aired the same program but it only showed British fighters and only British victories from 1914 to present, there'd be an uproar and it would be pulled by the 2nd season.

Under the Wikipedia definition of Dogfights, I think, the series is outright called propaganda. It's bad enough America has apparently gotten to the point they aire American propaganda rather than documentaries on their History Channel, but for Canadians and others? to have to pay to swallow their pride is shameful. I'm not sure who I'm more disappointed in.

An old veteran of the RCAF I see at the swimming pool from time to time said it was proof the 'History Television' was owned by American, not Canadian interests. To continually aire a series in Canada or outside the States, indicating the only important dogfights were not just ONLY American, but ONLY American victories; is a deliberate slap in the face of Canadian veterans and their surviving loved ones. It's a disgrace. Canadians have no pride?

Although the History Television Homepage URL does end with a ".ca" indicating it is Canadian and taxed in Canada, it's ownership company Canwest's homepage is a ".com" indicating not Canadian and their Toll Free contact number area code is in California, USA.

Add to this I saw numerous historically questionable US series like JAG and CSI, Crime Stories, Urban myths and 'paid program' commercials and I wonder why Canadians actually pay them money for it?

There are numerous internationally respected if not fair warplane documentaries out there like 'Warplane' and 'Fighter' who report on and even interview aces and crews on both sides as is ethical for 'historians'. What these channels choose to broadcast anymore seemingly spends more effort on CGI eye-candy like in video games than in researching and representing impartial historical accuracy. The critics are right, this isn't 'history programming', it's propaganda.

Any Canadians in the decision-making process of that Channel must not have any pride in their country, their airforce veterans nor their surviving families.

So, yes, I really do wonder if "History Television" is truly owned and run by Canadian interests.

I've got no problem learning about American history, I do have a problem with it being portrayed as the only history, especially in other countries.

99% of all our history is non-American, yet it seems to me the largest portion of programming on this channel seem to be about the United States, which is actually quite a young country as history goes.

We're looking for a new History Channel while living in Canada. Can someone suggest a Satellite or other package that has some History programming that is more ethical and unbiased?
Cheers
Befuddler (talk) 10:12, 3 April 2008 (UTC)