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An example I am fond of of "History must be the way we said it was". A few years ago, one of the documentary shows did a program where the reconstuced the actual appearance of historical individuals from thier death masks. One of the individuals they did was Abraham Lincoln. Since the reconstructions were being done in a very good computer, the show people decied to take advantage of that and also show something that no one had probably seen since Lincoln's death; what he looked like similing. As they pointed out, the somber faced Lincoln that most people grew up with was mostly a result of how long it too to take a photo back when he lived, and what a serios business photo's were considered. The histroical record point out that Lincoln was in fact famous for his jokes and wit (it was a big part of his appeal). When I went to read online assesments of the progam (including some by fairly well established historians) you'd be surprised how many took offense at thier doing so, saying that showing Lincoln smiling was "an insult to his dignity of image".
Honestly, sometimes I fear literature is going to end up the way Ray Bradbury predicted (not in the way he imagined it in Farenheight 451 the way he imagined it in some of his other stories, like "Usher II" in The Martian Chronicles) one where only the most objective form of reality is permitted and imagination and fantasy are effectively banned.
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