WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

I've watched a few 'Dark Docs' history documentaries on YouTube  recently.

"Dark Docs brings you cinematic short military history documentaries featuring the greatest battles and most heroic stories of modern warfare, covering World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and special forces operations in between. As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas."

Well, good on them I guess for admitting to the fabrications of 'historical' images and footage they use - "As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes (sic) similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact." - but I'm pretty damned sure that the majority of watchers of this haven't read the rider that they've put in and naively think that everything they see and hear is real history.

It is American I guess and we know how since day dot they've been re-writing history. USA won the First and Second Word Wars don'tcha know. Since the Trump presidency it only got worse with the history of slavery being suppressed and anything that the Republicans don't like in art, history and literature they have removed from schools.

The 'Dark Docs' documentaries I watched seemed to be well researched but the use of fabricated footage and images (AI?) distort what is being said though. It sensationalises the story being reported and gives support to what is being said that might not be factual.

Where have all the good documentary series gone - the great British ones of a few decades ago?

I've complained before about how TV documentaries have been dumbed down, especially American ones where the same idea and image is repeated ad nauseam so that a 50 minute programme really only has 10 minutes of content with the rest being repetitions and filler.*

Now, with AI and ChatGPT being used non-discerning viewers can be hoodwinked in the way that I parodied it here: AMERICAN HISTORY

I despair of the future.

* Not unlike my posts some rude old musician might say.