Podcast Summary: The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1698 DEBUNKED: Exposing Every Lie In Ken Burns’ New Anti-American Documentary
Date: November 26, 2025
Host: Matt Walsh (The Daily Wire)

Overview

In this episode, Matt Walsh sets out to methodically “debunk” what he frames as anti-American propaganda in Ken Burns' latest PBS documentary, The American Revolution. While recognizing Burns’ reputation and technical skill as a documentarian, Walsh claims the series intentionally distorts history to undermine American heritage and values. He systematically critiques (with timestamps) various "woke" or revisionist moments he perceives in the documentary, providing counter-arguments and additional historical context. The episode closes with a critique of Pennsylvania's new "hair discrimination" law, which Walsh considers both frivolous and culturally corrosive.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ken Burns’ Reputation and Influence

[04:51–06:02]

• Walsh underscores Burns’ status: “Ken Burns is one of the most famous documentary filmmakers in the entire world…his documentaries take a very long time to produce, and in turn, they also take a very long time to watch.”
• PBS imprimatur: With public funding, Burns’ films “give his films the imprimatur of a legitimate, important historical record.”
• Walsh’s main criticism: Though 70-80% of The American Revolution is “quite good,” a sizeable portion (20-30%) is “very well-produced propaganda…weaves complete nonsense, and I mean total garbage gibberish, into a very compelling narrative.”

2. Indigenous Influence Claim

[06:02–08:36]

• Ken Burns’ documentary opens by suggesting the US borrowed its system of democracy from the Iroquois Confederacy.
• Quote [07:03, Matt Walsh]: “The implication is that Ben Franklin saw what the Iroquois had achieved and like a typical white colonialist demon, he cribbed their work for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”
• Walsh rebuts with context: He cites Franklin’s 1751 letter to James Parker which references the Iroquois confederation as a pragmatic political union, not as a model for democracy:
  Quote [08:36, Walsh citing Franklin]: “It would be a very strange thing if six nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union...”
• Claims this excerpt is misused by Burns, omitting the absence of a written language, elections, or Western-style democracy among the Iroquois, and notes there’s no evidence in constitutional records that they were a model for the Founders.

3. The Slavery Narrative and Use of Passive Voice

[12:15–15:35]

• Burns’ narrative (passive voice):
  [12:15, Narrator] “Slavery was legal everywhere from New Hampshire to Georgia. Many of the black people living in the colonies had been born there or in the Caribbean. But tens of thousands were from West Africa, captured from what is now Senegal, Gambia...”
• Walsh’s critique: Burns avoids stating who actually captured and sold African slaves (“He’s intentionally omitting the subject of the sentence”).
  Quote [13:29, Walsh]: “Ken Burns knows that these black people were enslaved by other black people. The Africans were enslaved by Africans. That’s the dirty little secret you’re not supposed to talk about.”
• Phillis Wheatley segment: Again notes the passive voice, denying viewers the full story of Wheatley’s enslavement by Africans before being sold in America. Quote [15:35, Walsh]: “Well, wait a second. Who stole this woman from West Africa? Why aren’t we entitled to that information?... In fact, African villagers enslaved her…[but] Burns isn’t allowed to say that out loud.”

4. Role of Women in the Revolution

[17:39–18:27]

• Documentary credits women's boycotts as pivotal to the Revolution’s success.
• Quote [18:27, Walsh]: “So really the women are the heroes of the American Revolution. Forget the men who, you know, got shot and died…they single handedly created America.”
• Walsh mocks and refutes this as exaggerated, noting a lack of supporting evidence.

5. Attacks on George Washington

[19:40–23:28]

• Darby Vassell anecdote [19:40]:
  Story about Washington being “no gentleman” to a young black boy, whose veracity is questioned by Walsh (“even if true…this has to be the single lamest attack on George Washington that anyone could possibly make”).
• Walsh exposes timing and factual discrepancies: “The story didn’t appear in print until the 1870s…a century later…first credited to Tony Vassall, Darby’s father, who couldn't have been a child in 1775.”

6. White Indentured Servitude

[23:28–24:58]

• Points out that Washington had white indentured servants who often ran away—something omitted from the documentary narrative focused solely on black escaped slaves.
• Quote [24:28, citing NPR]: “…the newspaper in Virginia had 11 ads seeking the return of white runaways and three for black runaways…”

7. “Woke” Factoids: Women’s Pensions

[27:50–28:23]

• Claims documentary misrepresents Margaret Corbin’s Revolutionary War pension as “half the rate wounded men received” due to gender bias.
• Walsh’s rebuttal [28:23]: All wounded soldiers (men and women) received half pay, per 1776 Congressional resolution; Ken Burns allegedly sources the claim from modern secondary websites, not primary documentation.

8. “America Was Always Diverse” Trope

[32:40–33:38]

• Burns highlights America’s original ethnic diversity, referencing Africans, Huguenots, Germans, Scots, and Native Americans.
• Walsh’s argument [33:38]: Burns promotes a modern “diversity” narrative, ignoring homogeneity of colonial society—most colonists were “overwhelmingly white and British…much more in common with each other than with modern-day immigrants.”

9. The Founders and Deism

[35:10–36:40]

• Burns claims many Founding Fathers were Deists; Muslims influenced the Revolution via enslaved Africans.
• Walsh’s rebuttal [36:06]: The U.S. was “not founded by Deists”—cites state constitutions and colonial laws invoking belief in a Christian God, and 16 Congressional proclamations to “fast, pray, and give thanks to God.”
• Quote [36:40, Walsh]: “That’s not deism, by the way… But what Ken Burns and PBS are counting on, of course, is that you won’t look into any of these claims.”

10. Walsh’s Broader Warning on Historical Revisionism

[37:20]

• Critiques the educational and media establishment for “lying by omission…passive aggressive innuendo of delusional activists like Ken Burns.”
• Expresses intent to launch his own alternative historical series: “All I’d have to do to destroy Ken Burns’ documentary is tell the truth.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [07:03] Walsh (sarcasm): “Our system of government is based on the appropriation of marginalized people. That’s the idea. We owe our democracy to the Indians, basically.”
• [13:29] Walsh: “…the Africans were enslaved by Africans. That’s the dirty little secret you’re not supposed to talk about.”
• [15:35] Walsh on Phillis Wheatley: “Put simply, being sold to an American family was by almost every measure the best thing that could have ever happened to Phillis Wheatley because it separated her from the people who enslaved her and introduced her to civilization.”
• [23:28] Walsh: “What we didn’t learn from Ken Burns, strangely enough, is that Washington also employed a lot of white indentured servants, many of whom also ran away.”
• [28:23] Walsh (on Corbin's pension): “If you think about it, it’s a strange claim. …They didn’t owe her anything and they voluntarily awarded her a very reasonable wage for the rest of her life.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Ken Burns’ influence and bias: [04:51–06:02]
• Iroquois Confederacy and American democracy claim: [06:02–08:36]
• Passive voice in slavery narrative / Wheatley: [12:15–15:35]
• Women as central revolutionary heroes segment: [17:39–18:27]
• Washington and boy on Vassell estate story: [19:40–20:54]
• Runaway white indentured servants: [23:28–24:58]
• Margaret Corbin/half-pay pension claim: [27:50–28:23]
• “Diversity” in colonial America: [32:40–33:38]
• Deism, Muslims, tolerance: [35:10–36:40]
• Broad warning against historical revisionism: [37:20–38:00]

Final Segment: Pennsylvania’s "Hair Discrimination" Law

[44:01–End]

• Overview: Walsh covers PA’s new “CROWN Act” law, which bans discrimination based on hairstyles linked to race. He dismisses it as a non-issue for most and contends that hairstyles like braids and dreadlocks are not unique to any single race.
• Quote [45:00, Walsh]: “…if you expected this legislation to be completely retarded, you were right. It is.”
• Walsh’s argument:
  • No hairstyle can be “owned” by a race; most “protected” styles have been worn globally.
  • The law is a product of racial identity politics aiming to exempt minorities from workplace standards: “...trying to make it so that racial minorities are not required to follow any rules or meet any standards…that’s exactly what they’re trying to do.”
  • Final judgment: “...the concept of hair discrimination and anyone who pushes it is today canceled.”

Summary

Matt Walsh’s episode is a detailed, polemical point-by-point critique of The American Revolution documentary by Ken Burns, focusing on what Walsh sees as “subtle propaganda.” He challenges the historical accuracy and intent of segments on indigenous democratic influences, narratives of slavery, women’s roles, “diversity,” religion among the Founders, and more, frequently accusing Burns and his editorial team of manipulating language and omitting critical context. Notably, Walsh uses sarcasm, directness, and combative language throughout. He concludes that these types of presentations feed a wider agenda to induce shame about American heritage, expressing his desire to launch an alternative “true history” series. The episode ends with a blistering critique of new Pennsylvania legislation against "hair discrimination," again linking it to larger arguments about woke activism and cultural decline.

(For brevity: All advertisements, introduction/outro, and unrelated content were omitted in this summary.)