When the Legend Becomes Fact, Print the Legend

This morning, I decided to dig down into the "Suggestions" entry at the bottom of my Tivo recordings. Because of how I have my main Tivo (yes we actually have 3), the suggestions sit in a seperate section that's a "click" away from the recordings that are there on purpose. As a result, it tends to get a bit dusty and filled with spiderwebs rather than cleaned out regularly.

Sitting in the midst of the long list of programs was something on HBO, called "Assume the Position". I gave it a shot and I'm glad I did.

Basically, it's Robert Wuhl

The title of this post is a quote that he uses regularly and is pretty much the "forest" view of this program (as opposed to any "tree" view nitpicking over details). The quote comes from the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). After revealing to a journalist (Scott) that a lifelong legend isn't actually true, the following exchange happens:

Ransom Stoddard: You're not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?
Maxwell Scott: This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

The point is that many of the historical facts we hold to be "true" just don't hold up upon examination of the facts. From Paul Revere's 19 mile ride being expanded to fit the romantic notions of a poet to most of our ideas about Christopher Columbus coming from a historical novel, he makes the point that history is nothing more than the pop culture that survives and gets its meme reproduced.

I'm willing to bet that the primary criticism of the program is going to be over one or 2 of *his* facts that can be questioned. That's missing the point entirely. You should be thinking critically and looking at primary sources instead of just accepting what you're told. And, he makes that case very well.

Given that several recent studies are pointing to students' inability to actually evaluate the credibility of the massive flow of information they're exposed to on daily basis, this is a skill that is completely critical going forward.

Oh, it's *definitely* not G rated. There's plenty of cursing and one bawdy skit involved, so if you want your kids to see it, you should check it out yourself first and decide from there.