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The Vietnam War and being on the “wrong side” of HIS_Story
Let me tell you, it ain’t easy being an American lately. So far, it has been a year of headlines. First, the fallen Confederate statues spurred protests and the senseless killings in Charlottesville. Then, Harvey and Irma came for an unwelcomed visit. Puerto Rico didn’t get a chance to meet the President, then the massacre in Las Vegas took place. Amid all that, a television event, rolled out in mid-September on PBS by the master of modern-day Americana portraiture, Ken Burns, and his sidekick, Lynn Novick, punched me in the gut. What a year we’ve had, filled with division and conflict. And it ain’t over yet.
The PBS Vietnam War Television Series’ aim was to generate discussion about the war with diverse viewpoints, according to Burns and Novick. Generate discussion it did. Like the war itself, there were many sides to the discussion. Some lauded Burns and Novick as master historians and storytellers. Some called it skewing facts and misrepresentation. But diversity is still in question. My comment here is not so much about the series. Rather, it is an observation on the practice of the media industry itself, and the people behind this series and other documentaries that…
