Anne,

Your statement is something from a "perfect world" and has no bearing on
this immediate subject. Editing is one thing but out and out removal of
a whole subject, in my opinion, is censorship and PBS did this.  

Not satisfied with this deletion, I call your attention to the PBS
Frontline four video clips where "NOT TRUTH" was told at least on the
Paris clip: "Sally came to France with Martha (untruth", it was Mary
(Maria). Reference to half-sister (misunderstanding, nothing proves this
rumor true,   see "Anatomy of a Scandal." Over to another clip,
Monticello clip: "Jefferson children with Sally" and "His son, Beverly."
The only two I viewed was so sickening with untruths that I never viewed
the other two. Why don't these purveyors of family programming and users
of taxpayer support, at least research such web pages as, Scholars
Commission Report (www.tjheritage.org) and many other factual places of
information? I encourage all readers contact PBS about this injustice to
a great founding father.  

This is so outrageous on a web page that proposes that children read and
view this stuff for their school programs. I will propose and will
insist that PBS correct this "oversight" or should I use stronger words?


I have no problems with other people's views so long as they are based
upon proven facts. Lanier's book and the PBS videos are NOT based upon
fact......NOTHING proves Shannon's views that he is a descendant of
Thomas Jefferson and the PBS videos have the same problem with
truth....NO proof.... yet they mislead the public in this direction. 

I would advise teachers to refrain from recommending this site for
Jefferson information UNTIL they correct these injustices to Mr.
Jefferson's character and legacy. 

As far as the Isaac Jefferson interview (backing Madison's claims), by
the same abolitionist, Samuel Wetmore, in another of his series, Life
Among the Lowly, A Harriet Beecher Stowe, book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, I
urge you to read TJ's grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph's scathing
comments on this slave's NON KNOWLEDGE of the issue and the fact that he
could not have known facts that were attributed to him because of
conflicts in his dates of birth, etc. Old Sam Wetmore was determined to
"bad mouth" TJ from all angles but more researchers are finding him
WRONG. As you mention, I don't believe Sam Wetmore could have used a
video because, I personally believe that "he may have doctored these
articles to his own liking" OR possibly he would have used PBS
tactics....just censor it out. 

You references to PBS editors intentions and editing, "if they were
intent on factual presentation", is a laugh because IF they were, where
did their story "jump the track"......it was NOT factual in several
instances.    

Thanks for your "ill-mannered" and "cocksure" remarks about me.....when
facts are lacking "always attack the messenger." Your wording convinces
me of your lack of knowledge of this subject all together. 

Herb Barger
Jefferson Family Historian     




Herb,

I am sure that anytime a tv station takes footage that it is submitted
to an 
editorial staff, and slices of film hit the floor. I'm sure you are
neither 
the first nor the last person who was interviewed for a broadcast and
never 
saw themselves appear in the final show. Having read your interview in 
Lanier's book and comparing it to the other interviews in the book, your

lacks any sense of humility or consideration for other points of view.
If in 
the PBS interview you referred to people you never met or knew, as
LIARS, as 
you do on this list, it is likely that the editors at PBS may have 
considered your interview as an invitation to a trouble. If they were
intent 
on a factual presentation, and if your are in person as illmannered and 
cocksure of your "truth" as superior to the "truth" of other
researchers, 
your interview with them was probably a disappointment.

In any event, it seems that the PBS site includes the Primary Sources
that 
teachers have a hard time presenting for students in a usable fasion. 
Certainly, it would have been better had the reporter been able to sound

record both Madison Hemings and Isaac Jefferson, but that technology was
not 
yet available.

Anne

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