Anybody watching Paula Zahn Now, and the hack job it's doing

on the evolution/creationism "debate"? I'm in the middle of it and getting furious. I have to return to the TV, but will be back to post more on it later, after it's over. On CNN now.

dumping nerve gas into the Delaware River.
What next?

and I will try to summarize it as best I can.

First, they had someone that they called their "faith and values correspondent" covering the story. The bulk of the coverage and face time in the first section was given to Michael Behe, who was portrayed as just an ordinary biologist and college professor who just happened to innocently come up with this idea, and was being persecuted and shunned by the college for it. They got another scientist from the college on as a "detractor" but she only gave a long pause and a somewhat frightened sounding "yes" in answer to the question of whether she though Behe was undermining science.

The second part did give some face time to Niles Eldridge, but I did not think it portrayed him as sympathetically, or gave him as much of an opportunity to express his views as it did with Behe.

The third part of the show had me absolutely steaming. It showed a family going to the zoo and the Denver Museum of Natural History on a "creationism tour". It showed them at the museum in front of a HUGE skeleton of a dinosaur, with the speaker standing there saying "Fossils are...boring."

Basically what I got from this program was that the people doing it were scientifically illiterate, and don't really understand what the scientific issues are at all. They also didn't seem to be able to figure out whether what they were talking about was a scientific debate or a social debate that pits religion against science. The fact that it was covered by a "faith and values" correspondent rather than a science correspondent, gives some indication of the inherent bias. The final word was given by one of the speakers on that creationism tour who said that it ultimately boiled down to whether we believe the word of man or the word of god.

I apologize for the lenth of this post. I'm not very good at recounting these sorts of things. Don't know whether anyone else watched it, or is interested in how this issue gets framed by the corporate media, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Thanks. I can't watch the corporate media or I'll barf and/or explode, but I do like to know what they're up to. They are obviously trying to pander to the fundies. It's frightening.

Doesn't seem to be much interest in it, but this sort of thing just infuriates me. This country is hurtling back into the Dark Ages, and most Americans are too ignorant even to realize it.

I honestly wonder how people expect us to remain either an economic or a military superpower after we've destroyed our country's scientific/technical base. I guess Gawd is just going to do it for us.

Actually, I think we've been a superpower long enough. It's not healthy for us. We'll be better off when China is running the show.

god, but they are still men, then nobody could claim to believe the word of god because nobody ever actually heard it, did they!

And we know how trustworthy these religious idiots are who claim to speak for god!

of how somebody thousands of years earlier was spoken to personally by God. That's a hell of alot more convincing than actual pieces of physical evidence. I mean, what do you consider more real, an actual physical object, or a thousands of years old story about something that supposedly happened thousands of years earlier?

Don't you know that you're doomed to Hell if you believe in physical reality?

Lehigh University has to place this disclaimer about Michael Behe among their department materials:

http://www.lehigh.edu/~inbios/news/evolution.htm

Good thing for the far right that they haven't done away with tenure yet....

I never watch the show, but the TV was on in the background, and I heard them talking about the upcoming topic. I decided to hang around and watch, since I'm very interested in this subject, and ended up nearly spoiling my apetite for Thanksgiving leftovers.

Nice series of pics of her, especially the one in the middle.

:D

She's got company: