Hi Timeghost team and Army members (of the week and otherwise),
it is since around year two of the Great War that I watch your coverage, and besides one Spies and Ties episode, I am current on all of it! And I have to thank you for your work, actually I cannot thank you enough. Well balanced, neutral and clearly championing democracy and human rights.
One thing I am only following occassionaly so, is your daily coverage. And maybe it is just me, but that seems to be a bit less balanced than the main content. It is hard to put my finger on it, but there is a certain leaning towards an US centric view, sometimes in my opinion borderline US WW2 propaganda. Not directly of course, but the focus is, at least to me, clearly on the US related aspects and from the US point of view. Fair enough, after all you kbow where your audiance is based.
The problem I see, as we near the end of WW2 and the begining of the Cold War (and reached Korea already) is that the US point of view becomes a lot murkier and in and of itself a lot less balanced. And it shows in the Youtube comments (I know, those can be easily ignored, but still hint at things and directions of public, or rather online, opinion).
Recent example: the execution of John Birch. First, not sure why to cover that, I assume a lot of stuff happened that day that didn’t involve an US soldier. And that post resulted in a ton of comments either kind of blong John Birch (and I have to agree to an extent, arguing with armed soldiers in a near civil war zone is not a good idea) or outright xenophobic and racist comments. Stuff like calling for war against China, whishing death to all Communists ot even calling to take the decents of the Chinese CPC soldiers to, and I cite, “to the shed”.
That’s just Youtube so, and you cannot moderate everything of course. My problem is more that by selecting incidents like this for your daily coverage, of which a lot happened during that time from Allied occupied Germany, newly liberated nations, China and beyond, you are somewhat attracting all these comments. And giving them a platform on a channel with almost one million followers (congrats for that by the way, should have happened years ago!).
And while historians should not comment on current events and politics, as you refuse all the time, nothing happens in a vaccum, not history nor the coverage of it. And I think we have a responsibility to consider the content we put out, especially in the current political climate. Because some of the comments and opinion under your Youtube comment could be straight of the McCarthy era. In my opinion, we should not give that rethoric, which is rightfully regarded as hateful and extreme, a forum.
Same goes for all those “Patton amd McArthur were right” comments, but those are equally funny as they are said and a different topic. They do show how powerful WW2 and Cold War propaganda can be to this very day. Something we should consider when covering those events im the way we do as the larger Timeghost Army and community.
This could have been a mail as well, but the form doesn’t allow for such long text. If you feel my critique / feedback is unwarrented, just close or delete this thread.
Keep up your stellar work regardless of what people tell you!