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The Biggest Scandals To Ever Hit The History Channel

Long ago, when the internet was young and facts nevertheless had meaning, there was a goggle box network known as the History Channel. It featured shows nearly history. You know, past events that actually happened in real life? The aqueduct specialized in documentaries about wide-ranging subjects, similar World War Two and the backwash of World State of war Two. It had adequate ratings and a solid audience of dads. Only so something happened (extraterrestrial intervention?), and the History Channel began to pivot away from strictly historical programming. Instead, nosotros were presented with a slew of reality shows about pawn shops, swamp people, and truckers driving on icy roads, plus a whole bunch of breathless "documentary" serial near how aliens built the pyramids (they didn't) and how Bigfoot was finally captured by scientists (he wasn't).

This baffling switch from history to nonsense has been a huge ratings boost for the channel, which has since rebranded from "The History Channel" to the sleeker, increasingly inaccurate name of "History." However, it has likewise landed the old History Channel in a whole lot of hot h2o. Here are some of the biggest scandals to striking the History Channel, and historical inaccuracy is just the start.

An 'Ice Road Truckers' star is arrested for kidnapping and extortion

History Channel

Ice Road Truckers is one of History's best-known reality shows, depicting the perilous lives of drivers in the iciest regions of Canada and Alaska. And sure, it's been criticized past actual trucker media like Truck News for exaggerating or even outright faking some of the danger, just the real scandal hit the prove in 2013, when Ice Road Truckers star Timothy Zickuhr kidnapped a woman and held her for ransom.

According to a CBS report, Zickuhr abducted Lisa Cadeau after hiring her for sex piece of work in Las Vegas. He claimed that she had overcharged him past $1,000 and demanded she run across with him to settle the dispute. But instead of "settling" anything, he dragged her dorsum to his apartment, beat her, tied her up with backpack straps, shoved her in a closet, and doused her with cold water from a mop bucket.

Fearing for her life, Cadeau gave Zickuhr the phone number of an undercover police force officer, claiming he was a homo who could pay her ransom. Zickuhr called the number and unknowingly bundled his own arrest. The Las Vegas Lord's day reports that he forced Cadeau to jump out a second-story window in gild to avoid law detection ... before he brought her direct to the hole-and-corner officer. Zickuhr confessed on the spot, admitting that he intended to agree Cadeau hostage and prostitute her through Craigslist and that he had "fabricated a mistake." Yeah ... no kidding.

'Aboriginal Aliens' is pretty racist

History Channel

Ancient Aliens might hold the dubious crown of the History Channel'southward to the lowest degree historical show. It'south well known for featuring men with wild haircuts spouting conspiracy theories most aliens and pyramids, simply the testify has too fabricated its style onto Southern Poverty Police force Center's Hatewatch web log for showcasing so many white supremacist theories.

Yeah, Ancient Aliens might seem like a chip of silly, conspiratorial fun at first. Merely the idea that aboriginal African, Asian, and Native American architectural marvels could have only been congenital past some kind of mysterious, alien entity isn't a new one. Hatewatch reminds united states of america that this concept was actually used equally 1 of Andrew Jackson's justifications for the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Jackson insisted that Native Americans could non perchance have built all those big, cool, aboriginal mounds scattered throughout North America, and therefore they had murdered the magical super-race that came before them, and therefore the Trail of Tears was totally okay and scientifically audio.

In fact, quite a lot of white supremacist literature over the years has suggested that non-European civilizations didn't actually build any wonders of the past, and that ancient Aryans are somehow secretly responsible. Switch out Aryans for aliens and you lot can see why some people find the bear witness so distasteful. And, equally Hyperallergic points out, we already know how the pyramids were congenital (ramps). Insisting on aliens at this bespeak is more than a little willfully ignorant.

'The Kennedys' was too controversial for television

Every and then often, even the History Channel has to admit that some of their programming is a tad controversial. At that place was that one time that they commissioned and then abruptly canceled a $30 1000000 mini-series nigh the Kennedys, for example. The Hollywood Reporter explains the baroque fate of The Kennedys, which was a scripted, 8-part serial about John F. Kennedy and his family, leaning hard into some of the more tawdry rumors about the famous association. An early on leaked draft of the script caused an outcry among Kennedy family unit allies, and after months of rewrites and filming, the high-contour projection was pulled entirely for beingness pretty much wall-to-wall slander and lies. Or, as the official statement went, it was "not a fit for the History make."

Co-creator Joel Surnow still defended his project in an interview with the Atlantic, saying people were biased against him for being a staunch conservative who wanted to make a Kennedy series. Conspiracy theorists as well took the opportunity to insist that the surviving members of the Kennedy family had bullied the History Channel into dropping the show (because conspiracy theorists dear the Kennedys), but all we know for sure is that when the mini-serial eventually did come out elsewhere, the Hollywood Reporter review called it "boring," "unwatchable," and "a ham-fisted mess."

The cast of 'Swamp People' can't stay out of trouble

History Aqueduct

Swamp People rounds out the cluttered triumvirate of the History Aqueduct's most inexplicable reality shows, alongside Ice Road Truckers and Pawn Stars. Instead of trucking or pawning, though, Swamp People follows the lives of alligator hunters living in Louisiana. Of course, alligators seem to exist the least of the cast'south worries. Sure, some of the alligator violence is exaggerated for dramatic effect, merely according to TMZ, Swamp People stars R.J. Molinere and Jay Paul Molinere really were arrested for attacking a man with a beer bottle. TMZ also reported that Trapper Joe was arrested for burning his girlfriend with a lit cigarette and so punching her in the chest. Screenrant detailed a fourth dimension that Roger Rivers Jr. got in problem with the police force for selling illegal meat.

The swamp people of Swamp People proved so troublesome, in fact, that the History Channel decided to only supercede them. Starcasm reports that about of the bandage was suddenly fired before flavor vii of the pop reality show, shocking fans and sending angry cast members into social media rants. The cast has denied rumors that they asked for more money, and they were vocally displeased with the network's abrupt, unexplained decision. Producers held business firm, though, and remaining fans just had to deal with a whole new agglomeration of (hopefully less violent) swamp people.

'Bigfoot Captured' is 100 percent fake

History Channel

In the grand tradition of that weird Animate being Planet "documentary" virtually mermaids, Bigfoot Captured was a feature-length special about the discovery and capture of a real Sasquatch. Information technology was also, as Paste Mag put it, a TV abomination. See, the History Channel styled Bigfoot Captured as a existent documentary, about an bodily existent live forest ape, despite the fact that the entire programme was pure fiction. Only, some people didn't realize it was fictional, since the "scripted story" disclaimer was cached deep in the credits. This left some viewers furious about pseudoscience beingness presented equally fact and some viewers thoroughly excited to discover "proof" of a "existent" Bigfoot. Many took to Twitter to spread the expert news about America'southward favorite cryptid.

I mean, sure, in theory a mockumentary nigh Bigfoot could exist a bit of innocent fun. Just non just did the History Channel fool their audience, they besides more than or less lied to their guest experts virtually the nature of the production. In an interview with Idaho State Journal, Professor Jeff Meldrum said he was disappointed to find that the documentary faked prove and had no interest in working from credible information. He confirmed that he had nothing to exercise with the overall plot, hadn't been told what he was getting himself into, and suggested that viewers "take what yous can from it, and have a chuckle over the remainder."

The grandson of a Nazi state of war criminal is revealed on 'Hunting Hitler'

History Channel

If the History Channel isn't yelling about aliens or pawn shops, there's a very good chance they're following up on a debunked conspiracy theory about Hitler. The aqueduct was jokingly known as the "Hitler Channel" in the '90s, subsequently all, and they haven't forgotten their roots. Co-ordinate to Diversity, the testify Hunting Hitler upset plenty of people by trivializing Hitler and giving acceptance to weird conspiracy theories well-nigh his escape to Argentina. The program was framed similar any other thrilling cold case reality evidence, without much reverence for the fact that Hitler is a little less whimsical than Bigfoot. Even more upsetting is the fact that the History Aqueduct promised anonymity to one of their cardinal sources, and then clearly broadcast his unabridged face (an unpixelated version of the shot to a higher place) to more than 180 countries.

As the New York Daily News reports, the grandson of a Nazi war criminal agreed to appear on the program with the understanding that his face up would be pixelated to protect him from the kind of people who are jazzed about watching Hunting Hitler. They do mistiness his face out — except for one shot where it is clearly visible, an obvious editing error that could accept had serious consequences for someone who really doesn't desire to broadcast that his grandad was a Nazi.

That 'Amelia Earhart' documentary that was debunked right away

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Retrieve when the History Aqueduct "solved" the mystery of Amelia Earhart, just to accept their key piece of evidence debunked right abroad by a blogger? Because that happened. According to Vanity Fair, the documentary Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence caused some brusk-lived excitement when it presented a photo of Earhart and her navigator, alive and in the Marshall Islands after her mysterious disappearance. The documentary suggests that Earhart survived her infamous crash in 1937 and that the U.South. regime knew she was live merely covered it up ... because ... conspiracy?

Anyhow, the History Channel only had a cursory moment of historical triumph before they were thwarted by a blogger with admission to a library. National Geographic reports that Japanese military blogger Kota Yamano decided to do a little fact-checking on Amelia Earhart'south fate. He looked up the alleged location of the photo in the Japanese national library'southward database and found information technology right away. He said information technology took him a half 60 minutes. Turns out, the photograph was published in a Japanese java table book in the year 1935. Ii years before Earhart took her flight. So even if information technology were Amelia Earhart in that photo (it'due south non), it definitely doesn't testify anything about her disappearance. In response, the History Channel promised that they have a team of experts "exploring the latest developments virtually Amelia Earhart," and they will surely keep the public informed if she should pop up again.

The Curse of Oak Island featured (surprise!) fake documents

Everything about The Expletive of Oak Island feels totally false, or at the very least just stupid. Like oh, wow, look, information technology's a piece of wood. That probably has nothing to exercise with the fact that human being beings have been building stuff for thousands of years and the island is covered with woods. Simply hey, no i can really say for certain where those bits of forest came from, and then get ahead and call that proof of buried treasure. Knock yourself out.

Just hither'due south a slice of so-called evidence that nosotros know is fake: the Oak Isle map that appeared during season half dozen. This particular map includes a drawing of the island and looks like it got torn out of a journal someone purchased at the Dollar Tree, but the notes are in French. That means it's accurate, right? According to the prove, this map is somehow supposed to exist connected to a much more mysterious and valuable "Templar document."

Just co-ordinate to Donald Ruh, who was in one case in possession of both of those documents, the 2 have nothing to do with each other. In fact, Ruh believes that the Oak Isle Map is really a fabrication, created by someone in the 1970s (which, granted, does predate the Dollar Tree). If the show'south use of those two pieces of evidence is what amounts to "proof," we don't really remember much of everything else that'due south happening on Oak Island.

The History Channel gave this dumb conspiracy theory a platform

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Information technology's one of the earth's most ridiculous conspiracy theories: the government is filling the air with chemicals so that they can mind-control everyone on planet Earth, or brand everyone sick, or control the weather condition or something. Just option your favorite. Most people intuitively sympathize the sheer stupidity of this thought, because if it were actually true that the government was filling the air with chemicals in a bid to mind-control everyone, they appear to be really, really bad at it. Have yous noticed an unusually large number of people stumbling around in our streets muttering things like, "Must manipulate futures prices?" Neither have we.

Anyhow, the whole thought is so apparently stupid that most people don't fifty-fifty think almost it, except History, who evidently felt like it was worth devoting role of a show to the weather-specific parts of the theory. (Thankfully they skipped the mind command $.25.) Merely co-ordinate to Contrail Science (and now everyone who believes this stuff is shouting, "You lot can't trust Contrail Science because they are totally in on it!") the History special basically merely repeated the whole stupid conspiracy theory and provided a platform to the whack-jobs who really believe it, thus making the theory seem credible ... which is merely such an awesome thing to practise in an era where half the population already doesn't trust scientific discipline. Thanks, History, for making information technology someone else'south job to remind everyone that you can't trust a conspiracy nut, even one who gets to be on the History Channel.

The devil on 'The Bible' looks like Obama

Information technology was already somewhat debatable whether a Tv adaptation of the Bible really belonged on the History Channel in the first place. Nevertheless, the mini-series The Bible was a huge hit for the network in 2014 ... except for that 1 slip-up where the producers cast an actor who looked a whole lot like President Barack Obama to play the devil. Whoops. As described in the Guardian, the comparison went viral about immediately after the 10-hr mini-series get-go premiered. Yous couldn't throw a rock emoji without striking several hundred posts of Obama's face next to Moroccan actor Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni (who, to credit his devilish acting, definitely looks grumpier than the president). Producer Roma Downey claimed the resemblance was a total coincidence and that the controversy was complete nonsense and exactly what the devil would have wanted, merely the damage was already done.

Time reported that when The Bible producers cut down their series for the feature-length film version, Son of God, they decided to nix Satan entirely, hoping audiences would focus their attention on Jesus instead.

In the wild, no one tin can hear you scream. Except all those camera people.

The reality competition Alone is totally about history, because everything you'll come across in any given episode was shot in the historical timeframe of vi months agone.

This particular reality show tries to one-up Survivor by abandoning its contestants in the middle of nowhere and then following their journey to survive alone in the wilderness. Happily, none of these people are naked, because some other truly awful reality show already did that.

According to E-Celebrity, one really stupid thing that got viewers fired up well-nigh the show (and not in the good way) is the fact that contestants aren't existence forced to survive miles from civilization, which is what the showrunners want you to believe. No, in many cases the contestants are actually within an hour's walk of the nearest boondocks, and sometimes they're in a place where there is a network of trails, which definitely seems to propose that they're merely not really that isolated.

The Mountain Man who got disrepair for building code violations

History'southward Mountain Men is totally virtually history, because information technology features people pretending similar they are living in the 17th century ... except for when they sentry boob tube while no 1 is looking.

One of the stars of Mount Men is Eustace Conway, and his deal is instruction people how to be self-sufficient and besides how to exist super pretentious near their cocky-sufficiency. "Similar Thoreau," says Conway's bio, "Eustace has gone to the wood to live deliberately, fronting but the essential facts of life, to see if he could not larn what information technology had to teach, and non when he came to die observe that he had not lived." Oh wow, dude, seriously? Yes, he's that kind of guy.

When he's not being pretentious on Mountain Men, he's being pretentious on his ane,000-acre wildlife preserve in North Carolina, where he teaches people how to live in the wilderness for a mere $700 a week, or $65 an hour if you'd rather just spend an afternoon riding effectually in a horse-drawn carriage. According to The Wall Street Journal, the preserve was recently raided by health, structure, and burn officials who accounted many of Conway's buildings "[non] fit for public use." Just you know, Daniel Boon'due south outbuildings also weren't fit for public utilize, and you didn't see wellness inspectors itch all over his property. Modern safety standards are so unfair.

I am a lumberjack and I'g illegally logging

When you lot recollect of lumberjacks, you unremarkably think of burly dudes in plaid, chopping down trees, putting "wipe your butt on a spotted owl" stickers on their trucks, and maybe pressing wildflowers like in that Monty Python song. You don't typically think of them pulling stuff out of the water, because that's not where trees usually are.

According to NPR, though, in that location was a fourth dimension when lumberjacks used to put felled trees on rafts and bladder them down the river, and every now and and so the copse would autumn off the raft and sink to the bottom. And they don't rot downwards in that location, either — if the water is cold, the copse will stay preserved at the lesser for a long time, and can eventually be salvaged.

The problem is, salvaging sunken trees is not legal in the land of Washington. That didn't stop Ax Human being star Jimmy Smith from angling those logs out of the river on national freaking tv, which was either ridiculously arrogant or ridiculously stupid. Smith had an entirely donating reason for his actions, though: to protect people participating in water sports on the river, in case they're using like an eleven-foot-long oar or something and they accidentally get information technology stuck on a log. "If I can save on kid or one boater, I think it'south worth it," Smith said. And nosotros're certain that the coin he got for those logs didn't gene into it at all.

The cast of 'Pawn Stars' was sued for $v million

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Pawn Stars is a wildly pop History Channel reality bear witness, featuring the supposedly "existent" day-to-24-hour interval activities of the Globe Famous Gilt & Silvery Pawn Shop in Las Vegas. Much similar Ice Road Truckers, the show has been widely criticized for having a rather loose definition of reality, and the shop itself has previously gotten into trouble over some of its merchandise. According to ABC News, they may take once melted down $50,000 worth of stolen coins. Merely the near valuable treasures at the Golden & Silvery Pawn Shop, manifestly, are the titular Pawn Stars themselves.

Huffington Postal service reported in 2012 that the sometime talent agents of the Pawn Stars stars were suing their ex-clients for switching agencies, demanding $5 meg in lost commissions. The agency, Venture IAB Inc., claimed that History Channel executives had intentionally seduced the stars away from their original representation, convincing them to hire Venture rival Michael Camacho of UTA every bit their agent instead and losing Venture millions they would have made on that sweet, sweet pawn shop TV drama. Information technology'due south unclear what happened with the lawsuit, which usually means information technology was either dismissed or settled out of court.

Chumlee has a less-than-stellar record

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Pawn Stars fan favorite Austin Lee Russell is ameliorate known by his stage proper name, Chumlee. He's portrayed equally the comic foil at the Gold and Argent Pawn Store, where he's oft the butt of jokes. Occasionally he'll impress his fellow pawn shop workers with his talent at the game of pinball. More frequently, he'll evangelize his lines in a way that lets yous know the money is but barely keeping him on the show. In non-televised reality, though, Chumlee's life is somewhat less whimsical and comedic.

As USA Today reports, police carried out a search of his house while following up on sexual assault allegations in 2016. They did non detect the evidence to captive Chumlee of sexual attack, only they did find drugs in his regrettably named "Chum Chum" room, including marijuana and meth, besides as numerous illegal firearms, and quite a few items normally constitute with people who bundle and sell narcotics. According to the New York Daily News, notwithstanding, the reality star was able to avert jail time with a plea bargain despite being charged with quite a few felonies.

Danny Koker from Counting Cars made some ignorant statements most the environment

Counting Cars is totally nigh history considering its star has a core value system from 1969.

The fact that Danny Koker is living in a hippy-hating, muscle motorcar-loving, masculine stereotype with its roots in a gentler time, when no i cared about things like being able to breathe or actually come across the horizon is not also surprising. He's a car guy, and he likes combustion engines, loud noises, and high speed, and actually none of those things are uniform with a globe in which people can breathe or come across the horizon.

"Prius, I've got no use for," he told the Canadian Morn Bear witness in 2013. "If it gets 4 miles to the gallon and has 800 horsepower, I'one thousand thrilled. Nosotros've got more oil than we can shake a stick at. The politicians are playing a game. Let'southward fire this stuff and have a good time."

So okay, we go it Danny. Clean air isn't exactly good for your bottom line. But most people can't spend 40 bucks a day on a v-mile round-trip commute, either, then you lot might want to rethink your stance about fuel economy but a lilliputian.

Rick Dale from American Restoration got called out for doing shoddy piece of work

YouTube

When your livelihood depends on your reputation every bit a purveyor of high-quality work, and your work is suddenly on display to an enormous television receiver audience, it seems similar it would exist in your all-time interests to brand sure yous go on producing high-quality work. Certain, you might feel like your fame has put y'all on the meridian of the world and it will never finish, but that's how Spencer Pratt felt, too. Who is Spencer Pratt, you inquire? Exactly.

So our advice to reality stars is this: Do loftier-quality piece of work. According to the Vegas Tourist, though, at least i reality star has failed to follow that piece of advice.

Rick Dale from American Restoration was called out in 2012 for restoring a 1950s-style jukebox only declining to actually repair the thing. He kept the jukebox for ii months, did a great job making it look good, just when the owner got it back he discovered that it wasn't in working order, fifty-fifty though restoring it to working order was part of the original agreement. Now, it'due south great to accept a sharp-looking, jukebox but what you really desire is a sharp-looking jukebox that plays music, and you especially want that if y'all paid someone $four,000 to get in expect sharp and play music. But not only did Dale reportedly fail to acknowledge that the piece of work wasn't complete, he also cashed the check and stopped returning his customer's phone calls. How professional.

The shamelessly offensive American Jungle

History

Reality tv set is part exploitation, office making fun of people who deserve it, and part totally, utterly, and completely fake. But there are lines that even reality boob tube producers endeavour not to cantankerous, and the producers of American Jungle definitely crossed one or 2 of them. It's one thing to exploit swamp people or weird mountain men who maybe want to be exploited, and information technology'due south quite some other to exploit native people who do not want to be exploited.

The 2013 show American Jungle was short-lived, and so you might not fifty-fifty remember information technology. Basically, it was a show about native Hawaiians from rival clans fighting each other over hunting rights. Only reading that synopsis probably gave you a bad taste in your oral fissure, but for some reason information technology never occurred to anyone at the network that pushing a faux narrative about native people and simultaneously misrepresenting their history was a terrible idea. The Hawaiian government was certainly not amused, claiming the show might have been entirely faked and that it was culturally insensitive regardless. According to CBS, the bear witness depicted illegal activities, too, such as hunting at night and hunting feral cattle without a permit. We're not sure how much any of this had to do with the show's swift cancellation, only it didn't get past its commencement eight episodes.

The Vikings weren't like that (sorry)

You will exist shocked to hear that History's Vikings is a dramatization, non a documentary.

Now in History's defense, Vikings is based on the former Norse sagas, which National Geographic says were written down in the 13th century but were passed down verbally for centuries before that. So the "facts" that are recorded in the Norse sagas probably aren't really facts — they've likely been embellished, altered, or fifty-fifty completely made up. Historians don't actually fifty-fifty agree on whether the show'due south key character, Ragnar Lothbrok, even existed.

One of the biggest liberties showrunners took was with the human relationship between Ragnar and Rollo. In existent life (bold Ragnar existed, plain), the two men were not only non brothers, information technology'south unlikely they e'er fifty-fifty met. And the show'due south timeline is all off, too — nosotros run across our favorite marauders raiding a monastery in Season 1, and and then attacking Paris in Flavor 3, which are 2 events that happened 120 years apart. As well, the Vikings did wear helmets (though not horned helmets like you lot're probably picturing), Christians themselves did not regularly do crucifixion, the Vikings almost never fought pitched battles (they preferred raids), and equally much as we beloved the shield maidens, at that place probably weren't that many of them, if they existed at all. Sadly, that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for the truth.

Surprise: The Founding Fathers probably weren't that hot

Sons of Liberty is what American history would await like if the Founding Fathers were all moonlighting equally characters on Riverdale. If yous believe that the Founding Fathers were hot, more often than not-immature men who were super-athletic and totally rocked those tricorn hats, you might also be tempted to remember you tin can become an American history teaching by devoting a few hours to this miniseries. Only you would exist totally wrong.

History (real history, lowercase "h") remembers the Sam Adams of 1765 equally a centre-aged dude with a paunch, but in Sons of Liberty he'south, um, not. In fact, he'southward non only swoonworthy, he'due south also surprisingly nimble for a 43-year-former dude. And that'due south not the prove's only inaccuracy — the Journal of the American Revolution listed 22 missteps just in the first episode.

Now, this is historical fiction, and almost every slice of historical fiction ever written contains inaccuracies — sometimes information technology's merely sloppy inquiry, and sometimes information technology's washed deliberately and then events will be more entertaining, or because the storyline needs to move along more quickly than actual history does. It's called creative license, but the trouble with using information technology in History (the channel, capital letter "h") dramas is that just about everyone who watches is going to assume that the things unfolding on the screen come directly from history. So when you lot tune into Sons of Freedom, it's worth keeping this in mind: Fiction is fiction, whether it'due south on HBO or History.

Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar was condemned past UNESCO

Shows about cached/sunken treasure and unsolved historical mysteries tend to do well for History, merely as anyone who was inspired by Indiana Jones to become an archeologist tin can tell you, real treasure hunting is super-boring. Then to get people to actually melody in to a testify about buried/sunken treasure, you lot kind of need to sensationalize, embellish, and but brand things upwards as you keep. The trouble is, most people believe reality television will comprise some actual reality, and the accurateness of most treasure hunting shows is questionable at best.

The History show Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar was a short-lived series starring forensic geologist Scott Wolter and treasure hunter Barry Clifford. Their squad was searching sunken wrecks off the coast of Madagascar that they believed were connected to the Portuguese Templars.

The testify was chosen out for unprofessionalism by UNESCO, which accused them of treating the research and recovery of the vessels in "an unscientific way, without the necessary precautions and leading to harm to the sites besides equally making information technology more difficult to understand the historic background of the sites." In response, Wolter basically claimed that UNESCO was just jealous. "UNESCO hates Barry Clifford simply because he is the most successful pirate transport discoverer in history," he wrote on his blog. Oh, okay, that must be it. All the same, the testify only lasted one season, so he clearly isn't that successful of a discoverer.

Counting money

Reality television stars exist in that messed-upwards void between fame and "dude, no one knows who you are." Some of them are really bad at walking that line. You come across, truly famous people can mess up spectacularly, clamber off to their mansions to lick their wounds, and then have a near-complete career rebound. Reality TV stars don't usually recover from their spectacular screw-ups because at the end of the day, no i actually cares that much near what happens to them.

Joseph Frontiera had a comfy petty stint as a reality TV star/groundwork character on the History series "Counting Cars," simply then he blew it — or at least, that'southward what a lawsuit filed against him by his erstwhile employers at Count's Kustoms says. Co-ordinate to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Frontiera was accused of embezzling around $75,000 from the shop and using the money to purchase plane tickets and make a down payment on a Range Rover. How did he do this? His accusers think he made rubber stamp copies of the company bosses' signatures so the company's checking account could get his own personal checking account.

This scandal was big news for a while, merely the resolution hasn't been as widely reported. Court records bear witness that in April 2019, Count'southward Kustoms won the case confronting Frontiera, who was ordered to pay $41,000 in restitution and costs.

History's Project Blue Book is all true, except for the parts that aren't

History

Then at a certain bespeak, one must wonder when "History" is going to change their proper noun to something slightly more descriptive, like "Reverse of History" or maybe "Fiction." Because they certainly don't seem to be heading down a trajectory of finding more historically important and factually accurate subjects to talk most. But hey, who tin can blame them? Enquire millions of high school students how much fun it is to larn virtually history, and most of them will, you know, exist comatose before y'all get to the terminate of the question.

Anyway, one of History's semi-recent shows is a scripted drama called "Projection Blue Volume," which is — surprise — another stupid show about aliens. Co-ordinate to Collider, though, it does have a lot of factually correct stuff in it. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, for example, was a existent person who worked as a scientific consultant for a government program called "Projection Blue Volume," which collected 12,000-plus accounts of unidentified flight objects. The problem with the series is that it doesn't just stick to the real story, and information technology'south not because the real story is super boring, either. Information technology's considering information technology'southward but not exciting enough for large ratings. And so History dumped a whole bunch of made-up crap into the mix and gave it a stir, so there'due south just enough untruth that viewers accept no idea what's real and what'southward fake. Brought to you by the "Opposite of History" aqueduct.

History Channel had to apologize to Lyndon B. Johnson'south family

Who doesn't dearest a good Kennedy bump-off conspiracy theory? Most people, actually, but that didn't cease History from airing a long series called "The Men Who Killed Kennedy." Originally created by ITV in 1988, History Aqueduct re-aired it in 2003 and filmed several new episodes series aired every bit part of History's 40th anniversary, um, celebration(?) of that moment that ended America'due south innocence and spawned a whole generation of nutjobs who sit down around in their parents' basements trying to find sinister messages in famous people's tweets.

According to the 50.A. Times, the only people who really paid attention to the series were the relatives of Lyndon B. Johnson because an episode chosen "The Guilty Men" basically concluded that information technology was Johnson himself who plotted to kill Kennedy so he could go president himself. Johnson'southward family wanted to be able to rebut the episode, and History Aqueduct tried to appease them past saying they'd hire some experts to review the episode that they already knew was made crap, you know, but in example information technology independent even more crap that they didn't already know nearly. And and then, if they found more crap, they promised to air another program that would publicly debunk the theory they already knew was total crap.

Well, their experts must have found something implausible in "The Guilty Men," considering History did issue an apology during a one-60 minutes special entitled "The Guilty Men: A Historical Review," which concluded that the original episode should have never been circulate.

Okay but seriously, don't mess with skinwalkers

Just for the record, Bigfoot is totally fake and aliens are well-nigh e'er totally fake, and Vikings didn't wearing apparel like bikers only skinwalkers — well, let's just leave that alone. No, seriously, get out that right the heck lonely because that stuff is terrifying, and at that place's no way we're gonna say it's fake because if we do the skinwalkers will legitimately Come. And. Get. Usa.

So and so History was all, "Let's make a program about skinwalkers." Because supernatural stuff fits right into the new theme of Opposite of History, so why not. According to Meaww, History's "The Undercover of Skinwalker Ranch" was supposed to exist a level-headed, scientific analysis of the weird things that happen on the infamous Utah ranch, but when you really sit down and picket the testify (which no one should considering eek, skinwalkers) y'all begin to doubtable that maybe the squad is simply using scientific discipline to try and dorsum up what they already call up they know is happening. There's even an astrophysicist on the plan — because astrophysics are totally relevant hither — and even his theories seem to lean more religious than scientific. Past Episode two, viewers were already hate-tweeting and abandoning the show in droves. "What investigation???" wrote 1 disappointed viewer. "It'southward just a bunch of dudes playing with high-tech toys."

So good, everyone can cease watching this testify now. Considering for the love of God, just stop watching this show right at present.

History's "Knightfall" turned a agglomeration of medieval bankers into action heroes

The Knights Templar had a cool proper noun, even though no one has whatever idea what the heck a "Templar" is but whatever. They were mysterious, they were powerful, and they looked awesome in chain post. Well, nosotros tin can't really ostend that last bit but of course they did.

The Knights were originally supposed to protect pilgrims crossing into the Holy Land, but hither'south the deal: They acquired the approval of the Pope, who exempted them from taxes and other rules that applied to non-Templar people, and they eventually became really, really rich. So rich that they set up a bunch of banks so pilgrims could withdraw money in one case they were in the holy land and not have to worry well-nigh getting robbed en route. Yep, you read that correctly, they were bankers.

Not then co-ordinate to History's "Knightfall," though. In "Knightfall," the Knights Templar are an elite fighting force who wait cracking in chain postal service and have a lot of affairs and become sweaty but still somehow manage to stay sexy underneath all the blood. According to Salon, the testify kind of has to embellish the Knights because they probably weren't actually an elite fighting force so much as a powerful financial institution, and Male monarch Philip IV of France probably took them downward considering he owed them money. You might become a few guys on Wall Street to melody in for that show, but History's viewers probably adopt the fiction.

The rich white dudes who "built" America

Somehow, the title of this show made it past History's team of whoever information technology is that looks at titles and points out the ones that are actually bad. Because it seems odd that yous could become all the way to 2012 and it wouldn't occur to anyone running a popular telly network that a show chosen "The Men Who Built America" would not necessarily be an inherently awesome idea. And as information technology turns out, the show not only sounds gross, it was pretty gross, as well.

According to the Baffler, "The Men Who Congenital America" was non only desperately named, information technology was basically but capitalist cocky-aggrandizement in that it celebrates the accomplishments of a bunch of really rich white dudes and mostly just ignores women and minorities and, perhaps even more than tellingly, downplays or fifty-fifty villainizes the contributions of the people who toiled to bring these "visionary" heroes' visions to life for not very much money and a whole lot of danger. One episode in the miniseries depicts the Homestead Steel strike, but even though the show is a documentary it gets a lot of the facts completely wrong, implying that in that location was something sinister virtually the strike and the workers who plotted confronting poor, wealthy Andrew Carnegie. So it goes on, asking viewers to venerate all those wealthy white dudes considering they built some cars and bridges and loaned a lot of money to people. Hooray for income inequality.

Permit'southward dig upward some expressionless guy on national tv set

FBI/Wikipedia

History doesn't exactly shy away from the morbid or the tasteless, so it should have surprised no i when they publicly appear they'd be making a documentary that would end spectacularly with the exhumation of a corpse. Can't ... wait?

John Dillinger, in case you demand a refresher, was a gangster who gained infamy in the 1930s for robbing banks and also for beingness handsome. The punchline of Dillinger'southward story is that he was taken downwardly by the FBI and then buried under 3 feet of concrete, and always since there are people who say it wasn't really John Dillinger who got shot past the FBI that night, hence all the physical.

According to the Chicago Tribune, this rumor has persisted for so long that Dillinger's relatives decided to have him exhumed in order to finally answer the question, and History was all, "Cool, let's get that on video." As it turns out, though, information technology's not actually that easy to get permission to dig up a corpse, and Dillinger's family had to abandon the idea after a judge dismissed their case confronting the cemetery, which had denied permission for the exhumation. Before that decision, though, History decided to back out of the project. They didn't say why, merely it might have had something to do with the fact that earthworks up corpses is morbid and morally bankrupt. So over again, that hasn't stopped History before.

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Source: https://www.grunge.com/145033/the-biggest-scandals-to-ever-hit-the-history-channel/

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