The Beginning of Accountability for Fox News’ Lies

Analyses of Fox News' historic $787.5 million settlement -- one of the largest in history -- of a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems for lies told surrounding the 2020 election are coming in. Its full significance for the entire media may not be known for years, but here are links to important articles, with …

Myths of American History May Not Be Lies, But Aspirational

“Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past,” is a new collection published and edited by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer, historians at Princeton. "Carol Anderson of Emory University discredits the persistent notion of extensive voter fraud in U.S. elections, showing how the politicians and activists who claim to …

Texas Social Studies Requirements Are ‘Untethered from National Democratic Principles’

Boston College Historian Heather Cox Richardson critiques new Texas laws on teaching American history, "requiring teachers to present opposing views on controversial subjects" such as slavery and genocide. Officials cannot seem to answer what might be the pro-slavery or pro-genocide position. The legislators also attempted to ban "critical race theory," though they could not clearly …

What Did You Learn in School Today? By Tom Paxton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf5Jn8O3s0c Pete Singer sings Tom Paxton's song from the 1960s. "What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? I learned that Washington never told a lie I learned that soldiers seldom die I learned that everybody's free And that's …

1811: Largest Slave Rebellion in American History Took Place on Louisiana’s German Coast

The stereotype that many of us were taught in American history class, either implicitly or explicitly, was that slaves were submissive, docile, and compliant. Clint Smith in Crash Course Black History challenges that myth as he discusses the largest slave revolt in American History which few knew about because it wasn't taught until relatively recently, …

Yes, Local Governments Can Require Citizens to Get Vaccinated

This meme, popular on Facebook among anti-vaxxers, spreads an untruth. You do not have a constitutional right to endanger other people by refusing vaccinations and spreading disease(s). You may seek an exemption due to firmly-held religious belief(s) or disability but that only applies to a small percentage of the population. Covid-19 vaccine mandates are indeed …

Distortions of American History: Betsy Ross and the First American Flag

This meme, popular on Facebook since 2019 when Nike purportedly cancelled a sneaker design after protests from social justice warriors, is mostly false, according to Snopes.com and other sources. (Click.) Did Betsy Ross really make the first American flag? "The well-known story that Ross sewed the country's first flag at the behest of George Washington …

Confederate Statues as well as One of Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea Are Removed in Charlottesville

This meme, spread on Facebook, is at best a half-truth if not a lie designed to incite outrage. Persons who spread it could have done a simple web search before posting to obtain fuller context, but chose not to do so, instead engaging in name-calling, "Marxist." Context and factual information are below. Charlottesville, VA in …

White Southerners Still Reckoning With Their Heritage

Southerners of a certain age were taught civil war history with reverence for the myths of the "lost cause"; Reconstruction as a betrayal of democracy; and that Confederate General Robert E. Lee was a great man. A progressive friend in his sixties writes that he deeply admired both Lee and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. "Lee …

American History’s “Biggest Fibs”

British historian Lucy Worsley (chief curator of the Royal Palaces) digs deep into US past, to find the cynical motives, divisions and darkness that lies behind the legends. She also takes this approach to British history. "Alternative facts aren’t new to American political history: they’re the making of it. The American Revolution; The Civil War; …