Bad camera angles were not the only thing wrong with former CBS and NBC anchor Katie Couric’s Friday interview with PBS documentarian Ken Burns on her Substack page. After spending much time on Burns’s upcoming series on the American Revolution, the pair moved on to discuss the state of history education in the country more broadly, which Couric described as “going backwards” and Burns labeled as being in “an autocrat’s interest.”
Couric declared that, “Personally, I have been really concerned and, and at times offended, by these new efforts to really whitewash American history to, whether it's national parks or whether it's something at Arlington National Cemetery, you know, an effort to make, you know, to talk about some of the black soldiers who died in various conflicts, to this whole PragerU, which is this animated series that's being shown in a lot of public schools all across the country, that basically gloss over things like slavery and, you know, to present this pristine view of history that's simply isn't accurate.”
One of the bigger criticisms of PragerU appears to be a video where a cartoon version of Christopher Columbus says slavery is better than death in a conversation with time-travelling children from the present day. PragerU has defended itself by saying that is simply what the real Columbus would have believed. Indeed, one of the child characters immediately follows up by debating Columbus and telling him that slavery was “evil.”
Nevertheless, Couric rolled on, “And I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on this reversion to a brand of history that is not factually accurate, that presents American history, you know, through rose-colored glasses and gives the impression that Americans never did anything wrong.”
She also stated that, “Howard Zinn kind of tried to turn it on, turn this on its head with, you know, talking about history from the point of view of the oppressed instead of the oppressor, but it seems like we've made so many strides in giving a more inclusive and a more accurate view of our history, and now we're going backwards, and it's so frustrating to me, and as a historian, I can only imagine how you feel.”
Couric tried caricaturizing conservatives by claiming we don’t believe anything bad ever happened in American history, yet she was promoting someone who thinks nothing good ever happened.
For his part, Burns accepted Couric’s dishonest framing of the conservative perspective, “Yeah, it's terrible and it happens. It's the course of human events. You go forward, you go back, and yes, it's simple. It's in an autocrat's interest to want to simplify this story and make it only one thing, but it's, you can't do that.”
Couric and Burns can dance around the issue all they want, but it doesn’t change the fact that PragerU and other conservative education reforms came about as a result of the Zinn-1619 Projectification of education. That school of thought is just as wrong as the strawman version of history they accuse conservatives of believing.
Here is a transcript for the November 14 show:
Katie Couric Media
11/14/2025
KATIE COURIC: Personally, I have been really concerned and, and at times offended, by these new efforts to really whitewash American history to, whether it's national parks or whether it's something at Arlington National Cemetery, you know, an effort to make, you know, to talk about some of the black soldiers who died in various conflicts, to this whole PragerU, which is this animated series that's being shown in a lot of public schools all across the country, that basically gloss over things like slavery and, you know, to present this pristine view of history that's simply isn't accurate.
KEN BURNS: Right.
COURIC: And I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on this reversion to a brand of history that is not factually accurate, that presents American history, you know, through rose-colored glasses and gives the impression that Americans never did anything wrong.
And you know, Howard Zinn kind of tried to turn it on, turn this on its head with, you know, talking about history from the point of view of the oppressed instead of the oppressor, but it seems like we've made so many strides in giving a more inclusive—
BRUNS: Yes.
COURIC: —and a more accurate view of our history, and now we're going backwards, and it's so frustrating to me—
BURNS: It’s so frustrating:
COURIC: — and as a historian, I can only imagine how you feel.
BURNS: Yeah, it's terrible and it happens. It's the course of human events. You go forward, you go back, and yes, it's simple. It's in an autocrat's interest to want to simplify this story and make it only one thing, but it's, you can't do that.
