Faulty History

Like David Shaw (“Character Assassination Sullies the History Channel,” March 7), I was astounded when I tuned in the History Channel to view “The Guilty Men,” a so-called documentary that advanced the premise that Lyndon Johnson “murdered John Kennedy to become president.” I was equally amazed at not seeing a reaction to the program anywhere in the media during the days that followed. I no longer have respect for the History Channel and will never watch it again. It should be renamed the Fantasy Channel. The tragedy is that viewers, especially the young, look to the History Channel for a true picture of the past.

Charles Hillinger

Rancho Palos Verdes

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David Shaw is right on in skewering the History Channel for its broadcast of a nutty JFK conspiracy theory with no apparent fact-checking whatever. They recently gave an hour broadcast -- in an alleged documentary -- devoted to a woman who claimed to be Lee Harvey Oswald’s secret lover while he lived in New Orleans. Supposedly, they worked together in Dave Ferrie’s clandestine cancer research lab while carrying on the affair. The History Channel does neither us, nor her, any favors by giving a platform to such a whale-tale. The show did not mention what facts, if any, they had checked. Can just anyone make “History” with a far-out story?

Wes Jackson

New Orleans