Open Letter to the History Channel

Hear hear, I second (or whatever number we’re at) this. I remember the days when TLC was ‘The Learning Channel’. Then they just keep adding more ‘When escalators attack” type shows till they finally had to stop calling themselves anything to do with ‘Learning’.

Although I did read an interesting article in Discover Magazine about how all these data “Channels” were only created to make money, and that the coming open data market will make it so you just watch the shows you want instead of having to pay extra for some channel because there’s one show on it you like. We’re already seeing this with the on-demand cable shows.

I wish I could find that article so I could remember who said it.

What about on-demand playlists? It would just pick from a list of your favorites, selected by you or by software that’s been tracking your viewing habits…

I think that we should create a virtual society of people interested in fair content, intelligent programming, good games and cool TV shows and movies. We would call it along the lines of “The Dead Poets Society” and we would fund it by canceling our registration to our current TV providers and creating the programs ourselves. It would be cheap because nobody buys that kind of program anyway.

By the way, my gf and myself have found a great use of digital TV. We begin watching a show at the pre-generic. We pause for 30 minutes and eat, browse internet or read something intellectual. Then we put play again. Every commercial we pass in x16 speed. It makes the viewing experience so much better.

Sophisticating? Really? If you are going to insult someone, make sure you don’t come across like an idiot.

First of all, I’m a blue collar worker. Having said that, I most adamantly agree, even if I don’t fit the stereotype presented (that is the only flaw with your editorial). The History channel is pandering to society’s weak link. The Ice Road, Gangland, paranormal and other tabloid-like crap being aired on the History Channel is an absolute outrage. As it is, our entertainment culture as a whole, has sold out to gangsta’ rap, reality TV, sexploitation, trashy celebrity idols and felonious athletes. This is reflected in our society, with cuts in education and increases in youth crime and dysfunction. What’s even worse, the early morning hours are completely filled with infomercials. Cable channels like THC are not freely aired, we pay for them with our subscriptions. We, the consumers, are being sold shoddy merchandise. The mentality behind reality based entertainment, is it’s low cost to produce. This makes the product even more shoddy and of much lesser value. The practice of dumbing down for the ignorant masses makes them even more ignorant. Other cable channels have become just as bad if not worse. TVLand, once a refuge from trashy, trendy shows with it’s classic sit-coms is now dominated nightly by Rosanne (for 2 hours every night) and 80s and 90s shows. The Cartoon Network, has an endless slew of homemade, badly drawn garbage that has little entertainment value. Because of this our children don’t have heroes, they have anti-heroes, women are seduced by criminal types and men are encouraged to be smelly buffoons who can’t even dress themselves. As Americans we didn’t decide to become this way, we have been misled and encouraged to become ignorant and dull-witted by an ever cheapening end exploitive entertainment industry whose motivation is easy money for a low quality product that exploits people’s gullibility.

I agree wholeheartedly. In fact, I just completely canceled my cable (today is my last day with cable TV) as 50% of what I normally watch is the History Channel and, in the last couple of years, it’s been trash.

I’m no longer willing to pay for it. Bye bye to the trash, History Channel. You’re done :)