Thank you to Bill Lindsay for focusing the discussion of the Burns
documentary on issues that are rarely considered by the public at large,
and in particular by the TV viewing public. In an era where we are
bombarded with information and live coverage on a 24 hour basis, we
forget that not long ago a record of daily events were only available to
the public in the form of their local newspaper. Inevitably these events
are the reporters' and editors' interpretation of what happened.
Newspapers were often  a forum  for presenting a political point of view
and the "facts" were always open to interpretation.

Historians struggle with these issues all the time. What REALLY happened
should always be the first question asked in the study of history. What
we choose to accept as the important facts in history will always be a
reflection of our biases. Therefore, when one views a documentary or
reads a book on historical events one should always view that work with
a jaundiced eye. Maybe Mr. Burns did not present the facts in a way that
will be generally accepted by historians.  A 10 hour television series
is not necessarily an appropriate forum to present the history of a city
more than 300 hundred years old. He could have presented a two hour
documentary every night for a month and still not have covered
everything that happened in New York in the last 300 years. Who are we
to say that his interpretation is invalid because he got some of the
facts wrong. History, unfortunately, is not a science. There is no way
to test whether the theories are correct.

In an age where we spend more hours of television coverage on  the
latest scandal or tragedy than on history, we should encourage any
attempt  to educate the public about the events that shaped our country.
Our efforts should be focused on supporting mediums like public
television that attempt to rise above the din  and bring some sort of
sanity and rational debate into our lives. Television is a powerful
medium. As the viewing public we need to demand the best it has to give
and not support the worst it has to offer.


Cynthia Busch