No More History?

One thing that I'm a little tired of anymore is The History Channel, which used to have some very interesting and informative shows about... history, of course. Evidently that subject doesn't draw enough ratings because almost everytime I turn it on now I'm deluged with shows about end-of-the-world prophesies or potential mega-disasters. All this week, in fact, it's Armageddon Week. I just saw part of the show on super volcanoes, one of which is in Yellowstone and is due to erupt at any time, destroying all humanity in America. Then there's the Mega Sunami which is headed for the eastern seaboard, or it could be sometime soon. Worried yet? How about asteroids, comets, killer viruses, or evil space aliens from the same planet as your mother-in-law? This all has hardly anything to do with history and is aired because of the shock value to, in my opinion, bolster ratings. I used to watch those shows and was scared that, at any second, a giant earthquake would swallow up the entire midwest, or that I'd spontaneously combust along with 4.5 million other people at the same time because of a freak atmospheric disturbance. Nowadays I'm immune to the intended panic of those shows, but they infuriate me because it seems they're trying to come up with increasingly more horrific images to fill our minds, with more and more of it based on speculation than facts. I'm disappointed that my eleven year old son knows more about alleged UFO abductions than he does about Napoleon or General Custer. They still have shows on these people and on historic events that helped shape the future, but it seems that they're overshadowed by the "What If" programs that are intended to frighten us into watching them. Those shows belong on the Sci-Fi, or Discovery Channel... not on the History Channel.