The Washington Post for all its prominence as a national newspaper continues to help spread the idea that design theory is just a new form of creationism. Admittedly the article is better than recent error riddled reports by Post reporter Valerie Strauss, especially since it does give more background on what design theory is, and quotes Mike Behe. However, the article doesn’t provide any quotes from design proponents that explain the distinctions and clear differences between creationism and intelligent design. And this even after the reporter was offered a chance for an e-mail interview and then spoke with Discovery Institute’s John West, who he then mistakenly calls Paul. It’s frustrating when reporters can’t even get names right, how can you expect them to really understand the issue.

This article, unfortunately, is appearing in newspapers all over the country with titles such as “Evolution Shares a Desk With Intelligent Design,” “Creationism evolves into intelligent design in some schools,” or “District issues creationism mandate”. Since up until now almost all headlines and articles have acknowledge that the Dover, PA district has called what they’re instituting intelligent design, it is obvious that this article so conflates the two that headline writers now claim that Dover has mandated creationism. Hopefully future reporters will be more precise with their language, balanced in their approach, and accurate in their descriptions, but I’m not holding my breath.