I think the word intended was "flagellate." Probably, the author misheard it. Still, he's out of his depth in a mud puddle.
I can just hear him say, "Get flagella out of here!" I think you are probably right, though I'm no scientist.
The author says he wanted the low-down, so he went to the ID side and talked to one guy. That's apparently how you get the story on a controversy.
He didn't understand squat. He came back and wrote it up. The editor looked at it, said, "Man, I don't understand all that technical stuff but that's heavy!" and rubber-stamped it to go.
If he'd talked to ANYBODY else and showed them what he had from his Meyer interview, that person would have said, "Bud, you've confused organs and organisms."