Georgia Public Broadcasting sugar-coats US invasion & destruction of Peach State
January 20, 2013
By Michael
Today in Georgia History is a joint collaboration of the Georgia Historical Society and Georgia Public Broadcasting. It appears regularly on National Public Radio stations out of the Peach State. The one from the nineteenth of January, 2013 covered the Georgians’ secession from the United States in 1861. The short program offered only a single interpretation of history, saying that ‘the defense of slavery was the primary cause for dissolving the Union.’ That was its summary of the climax of centuries of tension between North and South over major cultural, demographic, social, religious and political differences. The conclusion was entirely about slavery as well. It says:
Secession did bring war, and ultimately, the end of slavery, ironically making Georgia’s secessionists the most practical abolitionists of all.
Revolution can lead to unexpected places, as Georgia found out after the events set in motion on January 19, 1861, Today in Georgia History.
Notice that the word ‘war’ is as close as the piece gets to any sort of summary of the horrors endured by Georgians during the US invasion of the State. There is nothing about the US burning of Atlanta, the killing of tens of thousands of people or the US ‘March to the Sea’ and the practice of total war that the United States waged upon Georgia civilians. Instead, the piece just notes ‘the end of slavery’ and that ‘revolution can lead to unexpected places.’ Nothing on the suffering of Georgians. Nothing on the cause of self-determination. Nothing about the brutality that Americans inflicted upon a people who it claimed were their fellow citizens and countrymen.
The program is entirely from the point of view of the anti-Southern cause in the 1860s. Its interpretation of history is also entirely anti-Southern. And this is produced for an audience in the Peach State – not for an audience in New York City, San Francisco or Detroit.
Today was the first time in quite some time that I have listened to Georgia Public Broadcasting. The anti-Southern program described above was followed by two stories promoting homosexuality – which was interrupted with an advertisement for an anti-White National Public Radio show that the Georgia media organisation is promoting. In the near-hour that I listened to the station I did not hear a single Southern voice. Everyone sounded as if they came from Boston, New York or the Upper Midwest. No one came close to approximating the values and historical perspective of most Georgians. I finally turned it off in disgust. It might as well have been produced by the Anti-Georgia Public Broadcasting.
It should be mentioned that while the sort of programming described herein might appeal to some the Northern transplants who have flooded the State in recent years, it clearly does not represent the views of most Georgians. Recent polls show that half of Republicans in Georgia (and the Republican Party governs the State and has a large majority in its legislature in Atlanta) want to secede from the United States. This sort of point of view would no doubt shock and distress the folks at Today in Georgia History and Georgia Public Broadcasting.