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How the Privatization of NASA's The Learning Channel devolved into a for-profit channel pushing Honey Boo Boo

7
Mostly sane, most of the time.10/05/2012 5:11:33 pm PDT

The problem is us.

If we didn’t watch it, they wouldn’t air it.

If documentaries of Civil War hospitals and re-enactments of Roman encampments had viewers, that’s what they would air.

Mythbusters is still going strong, though. Dirty Jobs has a market. My boys watch How It’s Made. The John Adams miniseries was terrific, and it was done for profit. Ken Burns rocks, and he works for PBS.

I do wish that the History Channel actually had history, like they used to, but in post-literate America, ALIENS will outsell documentaries about the Continental Congresses, because most Americans don’t know what a Continental Congress was, who was there, or why they should care that Peyton Randolph died between the first and second.

This is sad, because I would prefer the real shows. When we ask for good, we will get good.