The Sideprojects Channel does Titanic (Badly)

[Matthew Q]

A large general-knowledge channel on YouTube (over 950,000 subscribers) called Sideprojects has tackled the Titanic disaster in a segment called Historical Events that Didn't Happen Like You Think.
I've watched many of their videos in the past and very much enjoyed their work, but this is just top-to-bottom filled with falsehoods. It's actually got me quite concerned, because I've accepted the information I've gotten from this channel in the past uncritically. I seem to have been dreadfully mistaken in doing so!

Has anyone got any stories about this channel tackling your other interests? How did they do?

 

[lobo]

You should be commended in your research and conclusion that this "alternate version" is full of falsehoods! There are hundreds of alternate versions of historical events that circulate on the web. Probably the mother of them all are the ones that claim the 1969 moon landing was staged, and that men landing & walking on the moon never happened! Shocking that so many people read & believe it! Some JFK assassination theories are way out in left field as well.

Sometimes in history when a catastrophic event occurs, human nature is such that something so simple, as an iceberg scraping the Titanic causing so much loss of life, cannot be! Many turn to conspiracy theories in belief there must be much more to the event causing the disaster that ensues!
Seems to be human nature!

 

[Steven Christian]

You should be commended in your research and conclusion that this "alternate version" is full of falsehoods! There are hundreds of alternate versions of historical events that circulate on the web. Probably the mother of them all are the ones that claim the 1969 moon landing was staged, and that men landing & walking on the moon never happened! Shocking that so many people read & believe it! Some JFK assassination theories are way out in left field as well.

Sometimes in history when a catastrophic event occurs, human nature is such that something so simple, as an iceberg scraping the Titanic causing so much loss of life, cannot be! Many turn to conspiracy theories in belief there must be much more to the event causing the disaster that ensues!
Seems to be human nature!

I watched that but didn't comment on it because I've seen worse. But one thing he did bring up that I don't recall hearing before was that Titanics hull plates were already leaking water before they hit the berg. Yes about some of the conspiracy theories. I think the most ridiculous one I ever heard before involved the JFK assassination.

 

[Kathy S]

This sort of thing—presenting something that the general public perceives to be factual but is in fact poorly researched and thus riddled with errors—is a particular pet peeve of mine. Authors and producers of nonfiction materials have an obligation to ensure their material is correct or at least make a good-faith effort to do so.

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you all the rant.

Thanks for the heads-up about this, Matthew Q.

 

[Steven Christian]

This sort of thing—presenting something that the general public perceives to be factual but is in fact poorly researched and thus riddled with errors—is a particular pet peeve of mine. Authors and producers of nonfiction materials have an obligation to ensure their material is correct or at least make a good-faith effort to do so.

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you all the rant.

Thanks for the heads-up about this, Matthew Q.

Yes. The problem with this subject and many others is people make unsourced statements often coupled with plagiarism that is often unsourced as well. I wasted lots of time trying to verify something on many history subjects and can find nothing. I've even emailed authors asking them where they got that info. No reply is standard. One of the more recent examples of that was an author regarding the subject of the re-enforced keels on Titanic's lifeboats. Never heard back from him.

 

[Matthew Q]

But one thing he did bring up that I don't recall hearing before was that Titanics hull plates were already leaking water before they hit the berg.

He also said that there were reports of the captain hitting the iceberg head-on??? I am so confused about those ones, I've never even heard them before.

I watched that but didn't comment on it because I've seen worse.

Yeah, that BRIGHTSIDE channel did a whole thing and called the Californian the California the whole time
There's actually people in the Sideprojects video comments saying "When I realized it was about Titanic, went to the comments and wasn't disappointed." I guess misinfo is so rampant that we've built a reputation for damage control

 

[Steven Christian]

He also said that there were reports of the captain hitting the iceberg head-on??? I am so confused about those ones, I've never even heard them before.

Yeah, that BRIGHTSIDE channel did a whole thing and called the Californian the California the whole time
There's actually people in the Sideprojects video comments saying "When I realized it was about Titanic, went to the comments and wasn't disappointed." I guess misinfo is so rampant that we've built a reputation for damage control

Yes. It's industry wide these days. Research doesn't seem to be a part of journalism these days. Actually for quite awhile now.