The Scripps researchers, in a nutshell, discovered that E. coli, when stressed (such as running out of food as in Lenski’s experiment or in the presence of antibiotics in the Scripps experiment) selectively increases the mutation rate on certain genes. Thus the mutations in this case are not random but rather directed at a certain area in an attempt to solve a certain problem. Lenski should have have been aware of this but even if he weren’t he should have known just by definition alone selection can operate on any heritable change no matter how the change happened.
He didn’t claim that the adaptation was random. In fact natural selection explicitly states that the adaptation is “selected”. It will not happen however unless some of the population had already experienced mutation through poor DNA replication or mutation. Natural Selection needs variety to select from.
The purpose of this article was to show that when some posters defended Lenski, their accounts were suspended.
“To their credit, some Conservapediaists backed up Lenski. Ideological purity being more important than scientific accuracy, the dissenters have evidently had their accounts blocked”