| Ken
Burns' "Congress"
1/11/12
-- From the PBS website: For over 25 years, filmmaker Ken Burns
has been producing films that From Wikipedia: Burns
is a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, with
almost $40,000 in political donations. From Oregon Magazine:
When the Republicans outlawed slavery (which is exactly what actually happened), guess who walked out of the House and the Senate . Their party begins with the letter "D." Guess who after the Civil War worked to disembowell the black franchise. You have it. The same bunch. Not once did Mr. Burns use the terms anti-slavery congressman or senator, then follow it with the word Republican. To listen to this program, the two terms (anti-slavery and Republican) didn't go together. The one Republican identified in this whole section of the show was described first as a radical, and then as being anti-slavery. This, of course, left the impression that the fellow was odd for a Republican. Everybody knows that radicals, regardless of party affiliation, are few in number. Taken in this context, it implied that it was unusual for Republicans to be anti-slavery. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nor did Mr. Burns identify the political affiliation of the first black American to be elected to either house of congress. A former slave who attained office during Reconstruction, before Democrats managed to change the rules so blacks couldn't win, Mr. White was a Republican. During my research, I didn't run across a single black Democrat who was elected to federal office during Reconstruction. All I located were Republicans. The only
Democrat Burns identified as such was Lincoln's Vice President, Andrew
Johnson, who assumed the presidency after the assassination. He
was the architect of the first version of Reconstruction. Here's
some American history which will shock every black Democrat who reads
it.
This was the Democrat Vice President of the United States who received
a note from John Wilkes Booth on the afternoon of the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln. This was the man Booth and his fellow conspirators
thought might save the South's cause in the war. This was the man
the Ken Burns "documentary" said supported the Union side in the
war. Historians like the one who wrote the text above frequently
describe Johnson as a "decent,
honorable man."
His acts defy that description At his best, he was a bad
executive who lacked the guts to stand firm for the principles
attributed to him. At his worst, he was the man the solid
Democrat South came to love because he authored the original
post-Civil-War Reconstruction Act -- the first version of
what is now called Jim Crow It
happened here, too ... This
inability to give credit to the good guys or discredit to the bad guys
if the good guys are Republicans and the bad guys Democrats is common
practice by liberals in television. (And all other forms of
communication, as well.) Here in Oregon, in a newspaper article,
a Portland State University professor of history described the "racism"
of Republicans. He did not mention that, historically, those
arguing for slave state entry into the Union in 1859, the Civil War
Era, were Democrats. Nor did he mention the local Ku Klux Klan
endorsement for political office that swung Oregon elections during the
early years of the 20th Century. They were sought by and
routinely went to, Democrats. You should read what the KKK of
Oregon had to say about things in those days. Amazing stuff. (A
long read, BTW) Public Broadcasting, like the Portland State University professor and all the other old line, Democrat-favoring media, ignore the above. If they are subtle, people like you don't realize what has happened. A bad guy can be presented as being on the correct side. They can leave behind the presumption of Democrat innocence without actually saying it. If you are ignorant of the facts about the events described, and aren't aware that liberal program producers use these deceptive methods -- hell, if you're just not paying very close attention at the time -- they get away with it.
A famous socialist once said that the public will believe any lie if it's a big enough lie. The lie of omission in Ken Burn's Congress is a big one. It is perhaps the biggest coverup in the history of history. If
the situation had been reversed -- if Republicans had supported slavery
and Democrats voted to end it -- you may be sure that the program would
have been quite different. I am reminded of the time PBS, in a
nature program, credited the extinction of the original species of
American horse, which lived here before the Spanish arrived, as being
due to "climate change and human activity." We know which race of
people wiped out the big buffalo herds. PBS identifies that bunch
with ten foot neon lights and trumpets. (The evil European white
race.) But when the noble original inhabitants of America wipe
out an entire species? It is politically incorrect to mention
them by name. So it is with those who supported slavery and those
who ended it. Jim
Crow? Ditto. If you
watched the segment of the PBS series about Jim Crow that ran after
Charlie Rose's program on May 28, you saw the lynching of blacks, you
heard about the beating deaths of No mention was made that all of those people who lynched blacks, all of those people who beat blacks to death for trying to register to vote and all of those people who committed all the other atrocities all the way down to forcing blacks to sit in the back of the bus were Democrats. Direct descendants of the Democrats who tried to block all Republican attempts to end slavery in congress, who started the Civil War to defend slavery, who with Andrew Johnson tried to disenfranchise blacks during Reconstruction, who opposed the Republican Civil Rights Act of 1866 (some text from that is at the bottom of this essay) and the Republican 14th Amendment -- and who created Jim Crow when they managed to re-take congress in the decades that followed the Civil War. As far as this program was concerned, none of the above happened. Civil rights began in Democrat congresses in the Sixties. And, as far as that goes, no mention of the Democrat resistance to the Sixties civil rights legislation was made, either. Republican votes are the only reason that legislation wasn't defeated, in a Democrat congress with a Democrat Speaker of the House, a Democrat Senate Majority Leader and Democrats chairing all the important committees!!!.. During this section of the program, one brief mention was made of congressional Reconstruction civil rights action -- but, of course, didn't identify which party had initiated it, and which party had fought it. The congress of Ken Burns' history is a fraud. The Democrat-protecting bias by way of omission here is titanic. The statements made by black historian Barbara Fields, implying that with present-day Republican congresses Democracy no longer exists, were outrageous. The Republicans identified in the later portions of the program were portrayed as bigots, blue-blood boobs and bloated business barons. And as felons and warmongers, of course. This is all standard practice at PBS -- the network that tells us they explain the meaning of things. Do
America, Oregon and history a favor. If you usually give these
people money, stop it. If your political representatives support
public broadcasting, fire them. (LL) 2/14/12 -- Read: Slavery by Another
Name *The Civil Rights Act of 1866 ... All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other.
Original text © 2003, revise 2012,
Oregon Magazine |
May 26,
2003, 9:00 PM --The most powerful accomplishment of tonight's segment
of the PBS program, Ken Burns' "Congress," is that Mr. Burns managed to
describe the period of official racism in America from just prior to
the Civil War to the post-Reconstruction era, without once identifying
a pro-slavery congressman or senator as a Democrat. 
Summing it up, this
PBS program by Ken Burns said that congress ended slavery. While
describing some of the great personalities involved in the debate, it
did not even mention their political affiliations. That way, the
audience was not informed that Republicans were against slavery and
Democrats for it. 
blacks
who merely wanted to vote and you cheered when southern blacks finally
managed to get enough people registered to take a congressional seat
from a white male "conservative," and give it to a white female
"moderate." (The "conservative" racist that blacks finally
defeated in that election, by the way, was a Democrat. When you
hear the term "conservative," you automatically assume the individual
is a Republican. The people who make programs for, and work at,
PBS know that.)