I'm pretty conflicted about the History Channel. I watch it a lot, but I shudder to think of the thousands whose ONLY education in History is that Channel.
For example, their War of 1812 documentary managed to COMPLETELY LEAVE OUT by far the central and most active theater of the war, the Canadian Border. And their ads for the special made it sound like the War of 1812 was the US sitting around minding its own business and the British suddenly invading, which is laughable.
It IS too bad that lots of people get all and their only information from the tube. The information on the tube has undergone so much 'handling' before air time that I always say getting information from TV is like eating food someone ELSE masticated. I would as soon get my ideas and reach conclusions from TV as I would let someone else chew my food for me. Unfortunately, public education being what it is and people more or less out of the habit of reading, the TV has taken the place of academic rigor. And even worse, most people are totally gullible and believe, 'well it was on TV, must be true!'