Reader comments
'History Detective' to speak in Salt Lake City

5 comments   |   Read story

Cats | 8:45 a.m. Sept. 10, 2008
I watch this show all the time and find it fascinating. However, political correctness is certainly a prominent factor in the way these stories are presented. What a surprise on PBS.
Carmen | 9:29 a.m. Sept. 10, 2008
what political correctness.....? history should be factual...no political bend
David | 9:37 a.m. Sept. 10, 2008
Cats,
What are you talking about? Maybe at least one specific example of this political sensitivity would be helpful. I detect a knee-jerk reaction. You should be able to muster one specific example if it is such a 'prominent factor.' I won't hold my breath.
Comments continue below
awesome | 11:08 a.m. Sept. 10, 2008
This will be a great event. Thanks for bringing her to town. Love the show as one of the best things out there!
Cats | 1:37 p.m. Sept. 10, 2008
I'll give you one example, though I'll probably get blasted for it: In a recent segment about the artist who created Mount Rushmore (his name escapes me at the moment) Gwendolyn Wright (right off the bat) referred to the artist as a "racist" because he sent letters to an American Indian chief in which he, in her view, used condescending language. I thought that was an unfair value judgment based on 21st century, politically-correct values.

One of my degrees is in history and an important thing I have learned is that one cannot fairly judge historical figures based on 21st century, politically-correct morals and values. One must judge an individual within the context of his/her own times. I feel that I have seen some unfair, politically correct judgments one this show.

Don't misunderstand me, I like the show. But, I have enough historical background to know when things are being presented in an unfairly biased manor. And, Carmen is correct, history should be unbiased, but it never is. Anytime you read or see any historical work there is going to be bias to a greater or lesser degree.

We all need to learn to recognize this bias when it occurrs.

Add your comment

Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.

Words Remaining

E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.

Image

Gwendolyn Wright

Advertisement
previousnext

Latest comments

The government needs to provide an environment where business grows. If...

San Juan fan, on the fact that this will be a great game. However, these...

Celtics crush Jazz

Pretty sure we have two first round picks, the mock draft boards all say we...

@Mr. Liesik and editors... "Scoff" is a strong word. I don't get that...

Lou Dobbs resigns from CNN

well cnn will probably be around 100,000 viewers now while fox hovers around...

TCU in good hands with Dalton

Don't tell me Cougar Nation isn't nervious about the outcome of the Utah/TCU...

Celtics crush Jazz

hey atleast we won in the 4th quarter 24-21, it looks like Jerry is doing his...

Missing the "G"

Koerber faces 19 new charges

I was one of the lucky ones who said NO, NO, and NO sir to this scam.

Celtics crush Jazz

The celtics only had 4 more field goals than us. Not horrible, but we had 0...

Advertisements
Advertisement