Jealous?

It appears documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is not a big fan of “The Last Dance.” Late last month, Burns told the Wall Street Journal Jason Hehir’s ten-part series didn’t constitute good journalism.  In addition, letting Jordan’s production company in on the project, as Hehir did, is “not the way you do good history, my business.”  Mine, too, Ken.

 

First, allow me to address his criticism of Hehir.  Since there was no attempt to hide the participation of a Jordan entity in the project, there’s no deception.  That simply makes the project the equivalent of an authorized biography, and those happen all the time, and they’re oftentimes quite good.  Maybe Burns needs to read more books.

 

Second, it’s always irritated me how documentarians rely on a technique that no trained historian would dare use.  (I’m more than happy to compare my Ph.D. to Burns’, if he wants.)  Watch his documentaries on WWII and Vietnam, then see if he doesn’t use stock footage.

 

What’s the problem with that?  To me, it would be the same as if I took a remark FDR made about Hitler and used it so that it appeared Roosevelt was talking about a Caribbean dictator, or vice versa.  Sorry, but if you’re saying the footage from one battle can be used to illustrate another, no, it can’t; it has to be site specific.  And to recycle that footage to illustrate multiple battles, well, in my book that’s not good history.  But it is an invitation to cut corners in pursuit of what is supposed to be the truth.

 

One last thing—there’s no indication on the internet that Burns has seen even one episode of the series.  I’d advise him it pays to know what you’re talking about before you open your mouth about something.