History (TV Channel) - Criticism and Evaluation

Criticism and Evaluation

History has in the past, particularly during the 1990s, been jokingly referred to as "The Hitler Channel" for its extensive coverage of World War II. Recently, much of its military-themed programming has now been shifted to its sister network, Military History, and the network's programming now covers a diverse range of topics on history and hypothetical future events.

The U.S.-based network has also been criticized for having "a bias towards American history", although another former sister network, History International, covered more extensively history outside the US. In 2011 History International was rebranded as H2 and now has more to do with the US.

The network was also criticized by Stanley Kutner for airing the controversial series The Men Who Killed Kennedy in 2003; Kutner was one of three historians commissioned to review the documentary, which the channel disavowed and never aired again. On the other hand, programs such as Modern Marvels have been praised for their presentation of detailed information in an entertaining format.

Also some of the network's series, including Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men and Pawn Stars garnered ratings in the U.S., while receiving criticism over the series' non-historical nature. Forbes.com contributor Brad Lockwood criticized the History Channel's addition of "programs devoted to monsters, aliens and conspiracies" and wrote that ratings trends have influenced the network to focus on entertainment rather than actual historical programming. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley is a frequent critic of the channel and its lack of historical or educational programming, showing particular disdain for Ax Men and Pawn Stars.

In his book 2012: It's Not the End of the World Peter Lemesurier describes the channel's Nostradamus series, in which he was invited to participate, as 'largely fiction' and 'lurid nonsense'. He also lists numerous misleading suggestions made in its films on the alleged Mayan 'end of the world' and the 'rare' galactic alignment that is supposed by John Major Jenkins to accompany it in 2012, while Jenkins himself has described Decoding the Past as '45 minutes of unabashed doomsday hype and the worst kind of inane sensationalism.'

In December 2011 Politifact gave the History Channel's claim that the United States Congress stayed open on Christmas Day for most of its first 67 years of existence a "pants on fire" rating, the lowest of its ratings, noting that its own research showed that both the Senate and the House had only convened once in those 67 years on a Christmas Day and adding that since there's a 1/7 chance of Christmas falling on a Sunday (where Congress did not meet in order to attend church) the claim that they would have convened almost every Christmas is "ridiculous". The claim had first been broadcast on the History Channel's show "Christmas Unwrapped – The History of Christmas", before being subsequently picked up by the American Civil Liberties Union's website on the "Origins of Christmas", and by Comedy Central's program The Daily Show. The Daily Show responded the next day by stating it was their fault for trusting the History Channel, and satirized a clip from the History Channel about UFOs and Nazis by stating, "The next thing you know we'll all find out the Nazis did not employ alien technology in their quest for world domination".