I Did Someting Crazy...

[Ericmopar]

His work is also a counterpoise to things like Fox's conservative bias.


By the way...
Lincoln had already signed the Pacific Railroad Act, so the railroads were already getting the money, but the Robber Barons in their land grabbing, liked to make railroads crooked, literally, so they were longer than necessary. Some rail lines are still affected by this to this day, although many have been realigned now.
They were charging mountain prices per mile through Ca's flat central valley and zig zagging along the way to no useful purpose.
They were building roadbed side by side in opposite directions out in the deserts, trying to grab land. Congress put a stop to that however.
Jack london had written about his accounts of Southern Pacific when he was a young "Oyster Pirate" in Oakland Ca. The S.P. had literally bought most of the land along the warfs of Oakland, to try and force people to have to ship in strictly by railroad. That involved a violent uprising that included S.P. hired thugs attacking people.
Much worse than whats going on nowadays in industry.

If I remember correctly, Theodore Judah quit the U.P. because of all the crime involved. He did good for himself too, because investigations later on exposed the original board members and a lot of persons connected to the C.P. as well.

[buzz456]

And then there is another bias. Come on now.

[GSkid]

But see Eric.... I don't want a railroad documentary with a conservative or liberal bias. I don't mind mentions of Chinese laborers or labor disputes cuz they are a part of railroad history. But I want them mentioned in passing, not delved into detail with a subliminal Trojan horse point to be made. Now if you want to get into that human drama in a train documentary with a point of view... then Ken is your man.

I on the other hand want it neutral and mostly to be about the challenges for the railroads such as seed financing, competition and the rise and fall of industries it has serviced. About mergers and acquisitions. The challenges of building tracks through swamplands, forests and steep mountain ranges. The history of locomotives, the manufacturers and different technologies as they evolved. The evolution of rolling stock. The technologies that made railroading safer.

I want a more nuts and bolts type documentary and less of a historical fluff piece. That's just my preference. Your preference may vary from mine. But I'm stating why I wouldn't want Ken making it cuz he would leave out most of the stuff I care about and would dwell on the stuff I don't care about. I don't want to hear a sob story from the journal entry of some poor 19th century Chinese laborer telling me of the frostbite he endured while driving spikes and boring tunnels through mountains.

[buzz456]

I like that perspective GS. That's the great American railroad story.

[Chacal]

Yup, I'd buy that.

[Ericmopar]

That would be like making a documentary about war, but not mentioning that anyone got hurt...

I agree about the nuts and bolts part of it being included. I just don't like whitewashed history.

I'm trying to figure out how you guy's came to some conclusion Burn's work is totally biased against conservative thinking. You should hear yourselves.
You've turned this into a conservative rant, when it started out as nothing but an idea for a railroad history series.

You guys constantly find a way to criticize what you perceive to be some liberal agenda even when it's not. It comes up surprisingly regularly in this forum.

I'm always dumbfounded here in Nevada when I hear conservatives complaining about wages not keeping up with inflation etc. But they vote in the people that don't care about the little guy. Time and time again.

Here in Henderson they voted in a conservative city counsel. One of the first things they did was redirect money to were they live in the city. The rest of us in some cases no longer have lines in the road, and the local schools on my end of town are suddenly broke. All the money for sports, bands and other activities goes to Green Valley and Foothill high schools (those are the areas where people have lots of money, some coincidence eh). That's why you see those bands at the Macy's day parade, but never the kids from Basic High down the road from me.
Those schools in Green Valley also still have their pools filled, green track areas etc.
I saw the same B.S. in Hayward where I grew up. No school on the flats had anything left. But the new and separate high school built on the hill, near the rich folk, got a new pool, had green track and field areas all through the drought years etc.
They closed our pool at Tennyson High, saying there was no funding... Then a year later built that new high school up on the hill with all the luxuries.
Always the conservatives gained power when these things occur.

But a person like me has to hear how the liberals somehow fouled everything up and the conservatives are a blessing from God and that Obama supposedly isn't a U.S. citizen.
You don't think a then conservative supreme court would have jumped on that immediately, even before he got elected?

I've had it with this uniformed doo doo.

[GSkid]

It's not about him being biased against conservative thinking. He doesn't do that. It's kinda like when a politician talks up his ideas positively without contrasting them with, talking negatively about or even mentioning his opponent's ideas. He let's the audience come to their own conclusions shaped by his own narrative. In politics it's called "running a positive campaign".

On the war reference and whitewashing history? No... it's like making a documentary on war and mentioning they got hurt.... then moving on. Not dwelling on it and diving deep into the personal stories of those that got hurt with an emotionally sad violin soundtrack playing in the background to pull the heartstrings and drive a point of view home to the viewer. Someone with an anti-war bias making a documentary wants you to sympathize with those that got hurt and wants you against those that put them in the position to get hurt in the first place.

This isn't a liberal vs. conservative issue. It's about making a documentary without a bias in either ideological direction. Ken Burns doesn't make neutral documentaries. He never has. He wants you to come to his conclusions and point of view. He doesn't make straight "just the facts" nuts and bolts documentaries.

I'm not sure what your political diatribe is all about. My whole point was about keeping personal politics out of it. And if Ken Burns makes a documentary about the history of railroads... it WILL have his political slant just like all his other documentaries have. Hence why you don't ask Ken Burns to make one if you want it to be neutral. I like mine neutral... so no Ken Burns for me.

[BillS]

I hold nothing against any of these men. If you have the balls and the drive to get up and go make a fortune for yourself, more power to ya. I chose a more laid back, have some time for myself, lifestyle. With that comes a middle of the road paycheck, but that was my choice. Those guys have no time for train sim or to bs on forums.

Well said, Rich! By the way, next time, don't hold back your feelings.

[BNSFdude]

The railroad wouldn't be what it is without the most important people there. And that's us (the labor).

[GSkid]

The railroad wouldn't be what it is without the most important people there. And that's us (the labor).

That's true. But that's obvious and a given.