Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and I have something in common—we both loathe the distinct lack of history present on The History Channel. Since January, the Senator has posted multiple complaints about this problem on his Twitter account. Reading them, I feel a kindred spirit. (Via Pourmecoffee)

  • That_Anonymous_Coward

    You know I feel the same way about Congress.
    They are supposed to be passing laws and doing the work to benefit the nation, but they seem to be stuck having who has got the bigger balls contest.

    Are you sure the tweests are real?  This is a good way to check…
    https://twitter.com/fivethirtyeight/status/161517312766255104

    • spejic

      There is a reason why this is important to Congress. Years ago during an attempt to cut funding to Public Television, the main argument for was that private cable channels (like The History Channel) were already providing educational and documentary programming, and PBS wasn’t needed.

  • Jonathan Badger

    Of course, when it did show history 10 or 15 years ago, it was known as the Hitler channel as it showed endless WW2 footage…

  • Navin_Johnson

    Seriously, if it’s not something like: Bog Folk, Raccoon Grapplers, or Antique Mall Jerks, then it’s Ancient UFO Mummy Pilots of Jerusalem.

  • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/lordbyteme Lord Byte

    Maybe they should just pull a Sy Fy and call it the Hi! Story channel :)

    • danimagoo

      For the love of God, don’t give them any ideas.

    • cservant

      I support this.  HI Story Channel.  Where one get HI on stories.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Doesn’t the HI Story Channel just run Behind the Music: Queen Liluokalani back to back?

  • Sean Breakey

    Back in the day The Learning  Channel had Learning, History Channel had History, Space Channel Space, and the Discovery Channel Science.  As proof positive of how bad this is getting, Discovery has a spin off called Discovery SCIENCE.

    • Navin_Johnson

      And Music Television aired mostly music videos.

      • Thad Boyd

         And Cartoon Network didn’t run live-action shows.

        • Daneel

           And CNN had news (I assume).

          • Ambiguity

             And Channel 45 had Captain Chesapeake.

            Er, never mind.

      • IronEdithKidd

        And Bravo had uncut movies.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        And Music Television aired mostly music videos.

        For about six weeks in 1981.

    • z7q2

      Indeed, the only channels that seem to have stuck to the original script are C-SPAN and the Golf Channel

      • AnthonyC

         Food Network, the Cooking channel, and HGTV still seem pretty faithful to me…

    • brianary

      And A&E had some semblance of Arts & Entertainment, rather than hoarding and bounty hunting.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        It seemed like the Autopsy & Exhumation channel for a while.

  • iheijoushin

    Glad to see not all Conservatives are a bunch of anti-intellectuals. If only folks like Grassley raised their voice more in defense of the value of education and life-long learning. Fight the good fight!

    • http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael

       Why, when the free market is doing such a good jo….

      Oooooooooooh!

  • Ashen Victor

    I have an explanation for all of this:

    ANCIENT ALIENS

  • MooseDesign

    I’m waiting for him to turn his gaze and lambasting back to FOX once he realizes how little information there is about Vulpes vulpes (foxes).

  • humanresource

    Won’t somebody, PLEASE, think of the Nazis?

  • kent williams

    Sympathize all you want with with Grassley’s complaints about History Channel, but be aware that he’s a right-wing conservative, was one of the original purveyors of the ‘Death Panel’ myth about the Health Care Reform Bill, and in general is a disagreeable old coot.

    I’m 54 years old, and I remember the beginning of his political career, in the 1970s.  Back then I started seeing his campaign ads and thought ‘who is this idiot?’  Apparently an idiot with staying power.  His exaggerated corn-pone accent, his hyper-politicized alignment with the most partisan and destructive wing of the GOP, all make cringe every time he comes up in conversation.

    I guess he should be thankful for Steve King, who is a bigger moron than he is. Otherwise he’d stand alone as Iowa’s foremost laughing stock.