CNN Accused of Fictionalizing Account of Texas School Book Hearing

Agape Press ^ | July 14, 2003 | Jim Brown

[longshadow]

Is this proof that the media are in a big conspiracy to suppress the truth of ID/creationism/Genesis?

Alternatively, it might be viewed as evidence that the "Discovery Institute" and PETA both use the same PR strategy, which is second-to-none in terms of generating free publicity.

[MEGoody]

"It was invention, it was fantasy -- and they [CNN] were making up the news."

That is nothing new. Anyone who takes what CNN reports as fact without checking it with other sources is a koolaid drinker.

[MEGoody]

"Even CNN has the good sense to not give credibility to ideas from the fringes of reality."

LOL That's true - they just make up their own 'reality' instead.

[Redcloak]

Was the reporter John Zarrella?

[MEGoody]

"They pretend to be "scientific" but they are just dishonest creationists."

It's clear you have a bias, aka no one who is a scientist would believe that God created things. I'm sure you KNOW that is an incorrect assumption, but you don't want to admit it.

CNN was quite dishonest in their reporting in this instance. And you are dishonest in pretending you are not biased.

[=Intervention=]

*ROFL* Of course they are...go on back to sleep in your Darwinist fantasyworld, where no-one may challenge or critique Darwin, and everyone who does must be a "dishonest creationist" (Creationist, a term invented by Darwinists, of course)...

[=Intervention=]

And so you believe CNN, although widely discreted on nearly everything, somehow, got this one right? That's not a very scientific viewpoint. In fact, because such a statement stretches the boundaries of credibility, I'd say that your bias is showing.

[=Intervention=]

Oops. Should be "discredited".

[Right Wing Professor]

The reporting is really unfair to the Discovery Institute. I mean, how are they supposed to be able to follow a stealth agenda, when CNN and Knight Ridder keep drawing attention to that agenda?

[Right Wing Professor]

Is this proof that the media are in a big conspiracy to suppress the truth of ID/creationism/Genesis?

Dunno, but the AP are in on the conspiracy too. This is series and hugh!

[VadeRetro]

Dunno, but the AP are in on the conspiracy too.

Well if they're all saying the same things what more proof of conspiracy do you need? There are two main ways of proving conspiracy:

1. Sources are ominously contradictory, and
2. Sources are ominously unanimous.

Here we have the latter case.

[=Intervention=]

And here we have the open-minded, non-partisan, intelligent scientific advocates...

"Intelligent design is just creationism dressed up in a laboratory coat," she said."

Which of course, is a lie, but even large distinctions are lost upon the narrowminded. Remember kids, all hail the zeitgeist! There are no holes in Darwinism, there are no alternate viewpoints allowed, there must not be any questions, ever...

Funny how folks on FR don't want to admit discussion of their own pet theories and turn to jackboot systems (public indoctrination) to enforce them. The irony that results when these folks trumpet Freedom as a noble goal isn't lost on me.

[jennyp]

Care to say a few words about what the Discovery Institute really advocates?

Glad to. Here's a clear statement from the Discovery Institute from 1998, back when they were more up-front about their agenda. (They've since removed the embarrassing S-word):

Life After Materialism

For more than a century, science attempted to explain all human behaviour as the subrational product of unbending chemical, genetic, or environmental forces. The spiritual side of human nature was ignored, if not denied outright.

This rigid scientific materialism infected all other areas of human knowledge, laying the foundations for much of modern psychology, sociology, economics, and political science. Yet today new developments in biology, physics, and artificial intelligence are raising serious doubts about scientific materialism and re-opening the case for the supernatural.

What do these exciting developments mean for the social sciences that were built upon the foundation of materialism? This project brings together leading scholars from the natural sciences and those from the humanities and social sciences in order to explore what the demise of materialism means for reviving the various disciplines. 

If I were a scientist, I'd love to be able to bring in the supernatural. It would make it so much easier to explain why my experiments always fail: "One of those darn demons kept bumping the spectroscope, causing the results to look as if my theory is wrong. Because it was evil spirits who messed up my experiment (once again), this in no way hurts my theory. Please give me more funding."

[VadeRetro]

"Intelligent design is just creationism dressed up in a laboratory coat," she said.

She and I seem to share exactly the same impression of ID. Exactly. But this is a "lie?" Has someone at the prestigious Discovery Institute discovered anything except that someone else's discovery needs a rebuttal?

They call themselves a "think tank," but that's not right, either. They're a PR firm. They organize "events" like the presentations at the Texas schoolbook meeting. They do press conferences and press releases. Somebody does a study they don't like and the Discovery War Room jams their press with a same-day debunking. They may not know whether the subject of the study was shrimp or fruit flies, but they know the study really means nothing.

Everyone knows what ID is really about. That's the lovely irony of Philip Johnson's pubicly proclaimed "wedge strategy." He flat-out tells everyone that ID is the "secular" camel's nose to get creationism back into the schools. It's one of the worst-kept secrets around.

Creationism, being religion, dare not speak its own name in a discussion of school textbooks. Thus it fights for ID, a militant ignorance of any evidence that creationism is ridiculous as science.

[Heartlander]

CNN and the AP fabricating a story...

déjà vu?

[VadeRetro]

Dr. John G. West, Jr., is a senior fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute ...

The prestigious Discovery Institute puts one over on Fox?

[ladyinred]

"This doesn't even rise to the level of journalism. Really, it's sheer fantasy,"

There seems to be a lot of that going around lately, and not just at CNN! The media feeding frenzy going on is on all of the stations, including Fox. I have no faith in any of them anymore.

[ALS]

spreading the evo-gospel again *ping*

[jackbill]

If nobody is watching, does it matter?