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Mike Irwin

Staff
Good lord it is frightening how little about guns and history R. Lee ermy and his writers know.

The rifle episode is tragically bad...
 
In about 10 minutes, several of the errors:

The .30-06 was the first smokeless military cartridge. It wasn't. It wasn't even the first US smokeless military cartridge.

The M 1 Garand was in service longer than any other rifle. Wow. Don't even know where to start with that one.

And quite a few other, lesser, errors that any monkey with google could have researched in a matter of minutes.
 
Well yeah... but if that bothers you, then..... Note to self: Don't watch a movie involving guns with Mike produced by Hollyweird (except Michael Man).

I guess they couldn't afford research monkeys - maybe they use research lorises.
 
Slightly different situation.

Ermy is on History Channel. Supposedly they have.... historians.

Apparently not.

Ermy was a military man. While I know that means nothing in the long run, he's held up to be a military expert and is on... History Channel.

My degree is in history. I actually know how to do basic research. Apparently History Channel doesn't.

At the same time Ermy's mouth is bouncing around about how the Garand was in service longer than any other rifle (about 20 years), he's getting ready to do a big segment on the M 16 kicks the AK-47's butt, he gives some pertinents on the M16... such as it was adopted for military service in 1964...

So, 1964 to... 2010....

I know the man was a Marine, but EVERY Marine I've ever encountered can do basic math, and knows that 40+ years is longer than 20 years.
 
I actually know how to do basic research. Apparently History Channel doesn't.
Click to expand...

And you just now found that out?

In all the Lee Emory series, I've seen there has been some bad information.

I haven't seen every history channel show, but most of the ones I have seen also get some facts wrong.

Sadly, it's frequently pretty basic facts.
 
Mike, if you really want to pound your head against the wall, watch the Mythbusters episode on tracer ammo. They explain that it is a phosphorous coating on the outside of the projectile that lights up because of the supersonic rush of air over it.
 
"Mike, if you really want to pound your head against the wall, watch the Mythbusters episode on tracer ammo. They explain that it is a phosphorous coating on the outside of the projectile that lights up because of the supersonic rush of air over it."

Hum...

Adam and Jamie. Former military? Nope.

Mythbusters, show about military history? Nope.

Mythbusters, has military advisors on staff? As far as I can tell, nope.

Mythbusters, on the History Channel? Nope.

Substitute R. Lee Ermy and History Channel for those questions, and they all become yes.

That's why that fail is so much more annoying, and egregious, than Mythbuster's fail.
 
So write him

You have the facts, he misstated the facts, paper and ink are cheap even if postage is outrageously expensive.

If you write him you may induce him to take better care in the future.

...and even if not, taking positive action will give you a pleasant illusion of having *done* something.
 
These shows don't really care about the true history, just what makes good TV.
I don't blame R. Lee Ermy.
If he wants a pay check he reads what they write.
 
Give Ermy a break. He gets paid to read a script that is handed to him. People might do all sorts of stuff because their employer told them to it; and they keep their mouth shut concerning objections.

I think it's funny to throw errors out there, and to catch errors thrown out there. I've watched dozens of yootoob videos on just one type of firearm made by all sorts of people. Almost all of them waste time going over the basics of the gun in order to come off as a knowledgeable individual on guns. I sit there impatiently watching, mocking the guy presenting the gun as he goes through his schpeal. I say to my screen, "Yes, we know it shoots the 8mm which is actually not 8mm but 7.92 blah blah blah. Shoot the gun already and show us your groups."

The troll in me would love to make a video where I obfuscate every single thing. I talk for 5 minutes about the "7.52 x 64 R - 'R' means 'Rifle' which was invented by John Browning when he was on missionary detail in Belgium" and I shoulder the rifle to shoot 100lbs of tannerite in a 55gal drum full of nails in a crowd of mannequins and the video cuts short before I pull the trigger.
 
On other forum, I commented on the most screwed up discussion of the Battle of Midway that I ever saw. Had the whole thing totally wrong and with idiotic video clips. American BBs for Japanese. Japanese ships firing quad 40s. An aircraft carrier under attack that was clearly a merchant ship being strafed.

Exploding and sinking ships from WWI or the Mediterranean, etc.

What else is new?
 
"So write him"

I did. Actually, I wrote his other show Mail Call, about some MONUMENTALLY wrong things that he said.

No response. At all.


"Give Ermy a break. He gets paid to read a script that is handed to him."

WRONG.

Ermy presents himself as an authority on the subject. He's been doing that for years. He actually does have some knowledge on the subject. He's a gun owner, he's a gun users, he's a supporter of the Second Amendment.

That's an IMPORTANT CONCEPT in all of this, folks.

When our own people can't even get the basics correct, what right do we have to complain about the other side screwing it up?

Ermy is also directly involved in the developement of the material; he's not just a talking head presenter.

That's why this is so damned grating.

If he were narrating a show on the anthrpology of Sub Saharan tribes, I'd give him more of a pass.


"People might do all sorts of stuff because their employer told them to it."

Again, Ermy was fundamental in the conceptual development and creation of these shows. He's not just a paid mouthpiece.
 
"On other forum, I commented on the most screwed up discussion of the Battle of Midway that I ever saw. Had the whole thing totally wrong and with idiotic video clips. American BBs for Japanese. Japanese ships firing quad 40s. An aircraft carrier under attack that was clearly a merchant ship being strafed."

I'll remember that if my right to keep and bear aircraft carriers is under assault, and a spokesman for the National Aircraft Carrier Association gets some basic facts wrong...
 
You know, it's funny...

Some of the people on this board will literally lose their minds if someone dares say clip instead of magazine.

They'll get a huffy "you're an idiot, your kids are idiots, your parents are idiots, it's idiots all the way down in your family" lecture, even if they're a complete and total noobie to the sport and a coming here looking for information and comraderie.

Let the semi-famous Gunny R. Lee Ermy get some truly basic stuff wrong, and it's a thousand and one reasons why it's not his fault.

Jesus wept, folks. :rolleyes:
 
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