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Ken Burns' "Congress" Is Pure Blather
Oregon Magazine ^ | 26 May 2003 | "LL"

Posted on 06/02/2003 8:14:12 AM PDT by Ronly Bonly Jones

Oregon Magazine

"Ken Burns' "Congress"

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.

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 disembowel the black franchise. You have it. The same bunch.

Not once did Mr. Burns use the terms antislavery congressman or senator, then follow it with the word Republican. To listen to this program, the two terms (antislavery 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 antislavery. 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 antislavery. 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 residency 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.

Radical Republicans in Congress moved vigorously to change Johnson's program. They gained the support of northerners who were dismayed to see Southerners keeping many prewar leaders and imposing many prewar restrictions upon Negroes.

The Radicals' first step was to refuse to seat any Senator or Representative from the old Confederacy. Next they passed measures dealing with the former slaves. Johnson vetoed the legislation. The Radicals mustered enough votes in Congress to pass legislation over his veto--the first time that Congress had overridden a President on an important bill. They passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which established Negroes as American citizens and forbade discrimination against them.

A few months later (led by "Radical" Republicans) Congress submitted to the states the Fourteenth Amendment, which specified that no state should "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

All the former Confederate States except Tennessee refused to ratify the amendment. The Radical Republicans won an overwhelming victory in Congressional elections that fall.

In March 1867, the Radicals effected their own plan of Reconstruction, again placing southern states under military rule. They passed laws placing restrictions upon the President. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the ("Radical" Republicans in the) House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote.

. This was the Democrat the program said supported the Union side in the war. Historians like the one who wrote the text above frequently describe him 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.

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.) 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.

Summing it up, this program 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.

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.

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 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.)

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 and the Republican 14th Amendment -- and who created Jim Crow when they managed to retake 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, blueblood 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.

© 2003 Oregon Magazine


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: congress; kenburns; liberalelites; mediabias; pbs; purebs; revisionisthistory
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To: Ronly Bonly Jones
Sorry, but he has also done 2 other very good works, History of baseball and Jazz
41 posted on 06/02/2003 10:21:19 AM PDT by centurion (The eyes of truth are always watching you.)
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To: Grand Old Partisan
The sore-losers of the new South love to throw around the phrase "boy", don't they?

If they must know, I was in the Wisconsin Army National Guard, 57th FA Brigade..."The Iron Brigade".

For you Neo-Confederates, the Iron Brigade (Black Hat Brigade) didn't break against the vaunted Army of Northern Virgina...it kicked their collective butt.

Now, the War is Over...Get Over It..."boys"!

42 posted on 06/02/2003 10:24:41 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (Stir the pot...don't let anything settle to the bottom where the lawyers can feed off of it!)
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To: Grand Old Partisan
I went to Amazon to view the status of your book and it says it's "out of stock." Is it still in print?
43 posted on 06/02/2003 10:25:27 AM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion (Free! Read my historical romance novels online at http://Writing.Com/authors/vdavisson)
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To: ShapeShifter
VCR=with a VCR
44 posted on 06/02/2003 10:26:48 AM PDT by ShapeShifter (I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.)
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To: Grand Old Partisan
Any valid points you raise are diminished by your constant hawking of your wares on FR.

By attacking the conservative vote, you do the GOP no good.

45 posted on 06/02/2003 10:32:48 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: SamAdams76
The Civil War: A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville, Fredericksburg to Meridian, Red River to Appomattox by Shelby Foote is far superior to the DVD.

Their are too many goofy historians, with an axe to grind in the Burn's film.

Also, to enjoy the books you must be literate, something that is not required from a video.
46 posted on 06/02/2003 10:33:38 AM PDT by TheWillardHotel
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To: BnBlFlag
Ouch!
47 posted on 06/02/2003 10:35:57 AM PDT by wardaddy (And they tried to warn me of my evil ways, But I couldn't hear what they had to say)
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To: Ronly Bonly Jones
Thanks for posting this. It is a fine article, more so for highlighting an important aspect of post-civil war history than for just exposing the hypocrisy of Burns.

Reconstruction was a period that was much hated by the majority of Southerners. It was Reconstruction that cemented the Southern States as the Democrats' "Solid South." For example, when the "Carpetbaggers" were removed from power in Texas in 1876, practically no Republicans were elected to statewide office for 100 YEARS! The "Solid South" enabled the elections of Presidents Wilson, Roosevelt, and Truman. Today, the "Yellow Dog" Democrats (whose name comes from the saying, "I'd sooner vote for a yellow dog than a Republican") have mostly passed from the scene, but there are enough left to effect a really close election in a few Southern states.

The current challenge for the Republican Party is to chip away at the current knee jerk Democrat voters, who must become convinced it is Republican policies that are the best for all Americans, regardless of race or color. I guess Ken Burns is afraid of just that.

48 posted on 06/02/2003 10:47:25 AM PDT by San Jacinto
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To: SamAdams76
The Civil War series was fantastic. But like somebody said, Burns is a one-trick pony.
49 posted on 06/02/2003 10:54:03 AM PDT by Tribune7
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion
Thank you very much! I did not know that a search on Amazon gets a reply that it is out of stock. No wonder sales have dropped lately. The book is indeed in stock, as you will see if you click on the Amazon link on my website. You can also search for it by the ISBN 0970006322. Barnes & Noble just starting stocking the third edition.

50 posted on 06/02/2003 10:56:35 AM PDT by Grand Old Partisan (You can read about my history of the GOP at www.republicanbasics.com)
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To: Ronly Bonly Jones
Abolitionists were not true Republicans. Most were Marxist (the first socialist revolutionary cells were formed during the Civil War in the North by the way, including many in the Army) and anything but republican in terms of their ideals. Republicans had a single issue coalition with the Abolitionists -- elimination of slavery. Beyond that, there was no agreement -- not even what to do with the freed slaves.
51 posted on 06/02/2003 10:56:41 AM PDT by CaptIsaacDavis
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To: stainlessbanner
By spreading the Democrat view of Republican Party heritage, neo-Confederates do the GOP no good.
52 posted on 06/02/2003 10:57:40 AM PDT by Grand Old Partisan (You can read about my history of the GOP at www.republicanbasics.com)
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To: San Jacinto
It is a Democrat myth that Reconstruction cemented the southern states as soldily Democrat. The South was soldily Democrat since before the Civil War -- the 1860 Republican ticket got ZERO votes in ten of the eleven states which were to secede. Reconstruction was but a brief interregnum in the Democratic Party's domination of the South which began when the southern Whigs shifted into the Democrat Party in the 1850s over slavery.

53 posted on 06/02/2003 11:02:18 AM PDT by Grand Old Partisan (You can read about my history of the GOP at www.republicanbasics.com)
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It Takes a Village, and Other Lessons Children Teach Us = Amazon.com Sales Rank: 74,793

Back to Basics for the Republican Party = Amazon.com Sales Rank: 2,443,297

54 posted on 06/02/2003 11:21:05 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: Ronly Bonly Jones
Bump for later
55 posted on 06/02/2003 11:23:59 AM PDT by CyberCowboy777 (Professional FReeper. Do not attempt.)
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To: Ronly Bonly Jones
Well, c'mon now, Ken Burns can't make something that makes democrats look bad, can he? If he has to fudge a little history that's OK.

After all, he is a good little democrat, ya' know?

56 posted on 06/02/2003 11:24:18 AM PDT by Bullish
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To: CaptIsaacDavis
Abolitionist were the very heart of the early Republican Party. The first Republican presidential nominee, John Fremont, was an abolitionist, and Georgia-born too. The man who gave the keynote address at the 1860 Republican National Convention, David Wilmot, was an abolitionist. Abolitionists, such as Representative Thaddeus Stevens, held most of the congressional committee chairmanships during the Civil War. President Lincoln appointed an abolitionist, former Republican Governor and Senator Salmon Chase, to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The marxist biz is not worth refuting.
57 posted on 06/02/2003 11:24:54 AM PDT by Grand Old Partisan (You can read about my history of the GOP at www.republicanbasics.com)
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To: stainlessbanner
Good point, because there is no publicity for the book (and for some reason has not been searchable on Amazon by title recently). Nonetheless, over 6000 copies of the first two editions have been sold, mostly at my speaking engagements around the country. Republicans who have praised it include Illinois Senator Peter Fitzgerald ("one of the best books I ever read") and Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele ("outstanding" "phenomenal" and his "favorite book"), and Justice Clarence Thomas cited it in a Supreme Court opinion.

58 posted on 06/02/2003 11:28:48 AM PDT by Grand Old Partisan (You can read about my history of the GOP at www.republicanbasics.com)
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To: Grand Old Partisan
"War of Northern Aggression"

You mean the "War to Free One Third of the South From Unpaid Labor, Forced Familiar Separation And Forcible Rape"?

Geez.
59 posted on 06/02/2003 11:31:50 AM PDT by Ronly Bonly Jones
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To: Grand Old Partisan
I'm not a hillary fan, but at least she ain't hawking her book on FR.
60 posted on 06/02/2003 11:31:50 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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