Big surprise. The MSM missed the real news. The news here is that a state-run museum censorsed a film because they had contempt for the film’s pro-ID viewpoint.
Imagine a news story about Hurricane Irene in the New York Times today, that leads off by saying something like:
A deadly hurricane, downgraded to a tropical storm by some in the meteorological community who think that there is a conspiracy to fool the public about global climate change, was the result of oddly severe weather conditions.
If you fell asleep reading that over your cornflakes this morning, who could blame you.
That lead is exactly the type of non-news that none other than the Associated Press is trotting out regarding the announcement that the California Science Center has settled a lawsuit over its banning of a science documentary advocating intelligent design from being shown in its theater. The cost of such censorship reaches six figures — $110,000 to be exact. That’s a legitimate news story. The LA Times has a brief report on it, as does the Christian Post, and likely a number of other outlets as well. It may not be high winds and flooding, but it is news.
Except at the Associated Press. The news there is that a staffer at the dogmatically Darwinist National Center for Science Education said that the settlement was like saying the South won the Civil War. Pure propoganda. Probably works with some folks as well, painting anyone who is skeptical of Darwinian evolution as some sort of red-necked, uneducated, racist, Southern hick. Not surprising when you realize that the NCSE is located on the left coast in Oakland, CA. (What? You don’t like that description?)
The facts of the case are pretty simple. We briefly summed them up here at ENV earlier today. Throughout the week we’ll have more to add to that story, such as incriminating e-mails, intolerant statements from academic elites, and more.
The AP story claims that the California Science Center is claiming that Discovery Institute issued “false and misleading press releases” in “an effort to drum up controversy.”
Maybe the scientists and scholars at the Science Center haven’t noticed, but evolution is an inherently controversial subject. Ask any presidential candidate. Or watch the switchboard light up with calls at a radio station when they broach the subject. There’s no need to “drum up controversy” about evolution. The controversy is built-in. The charge that Discovery Institute ever issued any false or misleading press releases is completely false. They can keep beating that drum, but that won’t make it whistle Dixie.