Endurance Contest

Tune in to "Secret History of the Freemasons" on Discovery Channel this evening, and see how long you can stand it.

I've already turned it off and back on twice, and I don't think I'm going to make it all the way through. The selective editing is masterful. I imagine the shoot went something like this:

Producer: "So are the Freemasons a sinister cult bent on taking over the world?"

Knowledgeable, level-headed person who actually knows what they're talking about: "Any time you have a group of people meeting in secret, people get suspicious. As a result, many people think the Freemasons are plotting something sinister. However, if you spend any time at all looking into the history of the Masons, you'll realize this is an unrealistic assumption because X, Y and Z..."

What makes it into the show? Only part of the answer, with the interviewee shot in a slow, low crane shot, with ominous music in the background: "Many people think the Freemasons are plotting something sinister."

Another nice device they employ is having the various journalists they're interviewing declare "I am NOT a Freemason" at the beginning of their segments, thereby implying that any measured defense of Freemasonry as a generally benign and currently misunderstood organization can be safely dismissed as Masonic propganda.

So far, we have been presented with the story of the P2 lodge as proof that the Freemasons are all plotting to take over government.

...

OK, I'm turning it off for good, about 30 minutes in: They have moved on to the senseless hazing death in 2004 at the Patchogue, NY "Fellowcraft Club", conveniently leaving out the fact that although the "ritual" in question was being performed by a bunch of Masons (Masons with decidedly poor judgement) it was not in any way, shape, or form related to the regular blue lodge degrees, nor sanctioned or approved by any regular Masonic body.

And, of course, they've alluded to noted historian Dan Brown's inclusion of the Freemasons in his next book, therefore... whatever.

I give up!