Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He also hosts the podcast StarTalk radio show.
Posted on 09/30/2014 7:18:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
After first denying the charge, famed scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson admitted, in a way, that he misquoted former President George W. Bush and will apologize for the mistake at some point in the future.
The hoopla began with a series of articles by The Federalist, a one year old conservative news and opinion website. Wikipedia editors also became part of the controversy after they removed references to the misquotation from its website, and at least one of the editors also wants to remove The Federalist's Wikipedia entry.
Tyson, host of Fox's "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" and director of the Hayden Planetarium, had accused Bush of saying, "our God is the God who named the stars," after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a way to distinguish "we from they," or Christians from Muslims.
Tyson posted his email response to Sean Davis of The Federalist to his Facebook page on Friday. His initial response was to say that even though no one can find the quote, he was certain that he heard it, and encouraged others to find the quote.
"I have explicit memory of those words being spoken by the president," he wrote. "I reacted on the spot, making note for possible later reference in my public discourse. Odd that nobody seems to be able to find the quote anywhere — surely every word publicly uttered by a president gets logged. ... So I assure you, the quote is there somewhere. When you find it, tell me. Then I can offer it to others who have taken as much time as you to explore these things."
In the comments below that post, a commenter wrote, "Perhaps this is the quote you were thinking of: 'The same creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today,'" with a link to a speech Bush gave after the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.
In response, Tyson wrote, "Good to see that the Bush quote was found. Thanks to all who did the searching. I transposed one disaster with another (both occurring within 18 months of one another) in my assigning his quote. Perhaps that's a measure of how upset I was in both cases. The mind is surely the next mysterious universe to be plumbed."
There are two problems with Tyson's response, however.
First, it is not the same quote. The quote contains some similarities, but the message and context are entirely different. Tyson was using his fabricated Bush quote to argue that Bush was being divisive in regard to Muslims. In Bush's Columbia speech, however, Islam was not mentioned nor related to the context.
Second, the Columbia speech quote was already mentioned by Davis in the original post that set off the controversy. So, no "searching" was necessary to find the quote that shares some similarities with Tyson's misquote.
Jonathan Alder, Johan Verheij memorial professor of law and director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Wester University School of Law, has been writing about the controversy for The Washington Post blog The Volokh Conspiracy, and described the situation this way: "What is really so 'mysterious' is why Tyson finds it so difficult to confess error and pretends that Bush's 2003 remarks were only just-now discovered. ... Yet if this is the source of the quote, then nearly everything else Tyson claimed about it and its significance is false (as is the account of the quote's provenance he gave last night)."
Alder also encouraged Tyson to apologize.
"Tyson claims to be a man of science who follows the evidence where it leads. The evidence here clearly shows Tyson screwed up. Whether knowingly or not, he regularly repeated a false account in order to cast aspersions on another public figure. The only proper thing to do is recant and apologize. That is what a person of integrity does," he wrote.
In response to a tweet from Christopher Chabris, a psychology professor at Union College who has written for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Tyson said he plans to apologize to Bush for misrepresenting him, but he is "looking for a good medium & occasion."
Wikipedia editors were removing references to the controversy on Tyson's Wikipedia entry. At the time of this publication, a reference can now be found, though the reference cites a Tampa Tribune political blogger rather than any of the original articles by The Federalist.
Also at the time of this publication, the three-sentence Wikipedia entry for The Federalist states: "This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy."
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a racist and a hate-filled bigot like most liberal democrats. He also hosts the podcast StarTalk radio show.
Big surprise.
“I transposed one disaster with another (both occurring within 18 months of one another) in my assigning his quote. Perhaps that’s a measure of how upset I was in both cases.”
Wow. “Upset”?
Someone needs to spend more time on actual research (does this guy even work in his field?) instead of acting like some special snowflake because Bush said something that upset your tummy.
One of the key tenets of the scientific method is to accept data contrary to your theories and to adjust your theories accordingly. Clearly not happening here...
I suppose in terms of the life of the universe 18 months can be considered a brief time lapse. Anywhere else...not so much.
Sorry, I read “black astrophysicist” as “affirmative action diversity mascot.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Neil+deGrasse+Tyson
05:19, 30 September 2014 CambridgeBayWeather (talk | contribs) changed protection level of Neil deGrasse Tyson [edit=sysop] (expires 05:19, 7 October 2014 (UTC))[move=sysop] (expires 05:19, 7 October 2014 (UTC)) (Edit warring / content dispute: Fixing edit summary) (hist)
03:00, 30 September 2014 CambridgeBayWeather (talk | contribs) protected Neil deGrasse Tyson [edit=sysop] (expires 03:00, 7 October 2014 (UTC))[move=sysop] (expires 03:00, 7 October 2014 (UTC)) (Violations of the biographies of living persons policy) (hist)
20:03, 28 September 2014 Jimbo Wales (talk | contribs) changed protection level of Neil deGrasse Tyson [edit=sysop] (expires 20:03, 29 September 2014 (UTC))[move=sysop] (expires 20:03, 29 September 2014 (UTC)) (Shortening length of protection due to recent developments in this story) (hist)
06:49, 20 September 2014 CambridgeBayWeather (talk | contribs) protected Neil deGrasse Tyson [edit=sysop] (expires 06:49, 11 October 2014 (UTC))[move=sysop] (expires 06:49, 11 October 2014 (UTC)) (Edit warring / content dispute) (hist)
01:09, 15 October 2013 Mark Arsten (talk | contribs) configured pending changes settings for Neil deGrasse Tyson [Auto-accept: require "autoconfirmed" permission] (Persistent vandalism) (hist)
00:30, 26 August 2013 Legoktm (talk | contribs) changed visibility of a revision on page Neil deGrasse Tyson: content hidden (RD2: Violations of the biographies of living persons policy)
07:55, 12 July 2013 Lectonar (talk | contribs) protected Neil deGrasse Tyson [edit=autoconfirmed] (expires 07:55, 26 July 2013 (UTC)) [move=autoconfirmed] (expires 07:55, 26 July 2013 (UTC)) (Persistent vandalism) (hist)
05:19, 17 February 2013 Someguy1221 (talk | contribs) changed visibility of a revision on page Neil deGrasse Tyson: content hidden and edit summary hidden (RD3: Purely disruptive material)
05:04, 17 February 2013 J.delanoy (talk | contribs) changed visibility of a revision on page Neil deGrasse Tyson: content hidden and edit summary hidden (Non-public identifying or personal information)
19:04, 2 August 2012 Spellcast (talk | contribs) protected Neil deGrasse Tyson [edit=autoconfirmed] (expires 19:04, 16 August 2012 (UTC)) [move=autoconfirmed] (expires 19:04, 16 August 2012 (UTC)) (same vandalism) (hist)
21:30, 25 July 2012 Acalamari (talk | contribs) protected Neil deGrasse Tyson [edit=autoconfirmed] (expires 21:30, 1 August 2012 (UTC)) [move=autoconfirmed] (expires 21:30, 1 August 2012 (UTC)) (Sudden rush of vandalism) (hist)
Note that they deleted any reference to the controversy under their "Violations of the biographies of living persons policy" despite the fact that none of the facts in the matter are in dispute. Just for comparison, I went to Pat Buchanan's page (picking someone I knew they would hate) and sure enough they even have an anti-semetic quote which he is alleged to have said but which he claims is fabricated and for which there is no evidence at all hat he said it.
Strip away the newspeak and their policy should be called "Violations of the biographies of living obama Supporters".
Kind of ironic that these “science” guys forget that facts matter more than emotional desire.
Does Tyson qualify as a “black hole”?
I liked him until I gagged my way through three (yes three) COSMOS episodes.
What a joke.
Sorry, Neal, you had the education and the chance to help sell science.
You blew it big time, and in doing so, you have taken a bodacious Obama on science.
Go away and share a house with Holder.
You left out an “a”.
Apparently he doesn’t know how to use google. Typical Affirmative Action PHD.
Pray America wakes
In the first half-hour of the first episode we were treated to an extended and thinly disguised hit piece on the Catholic Church, with badly done cartoons. I turned it off and never went back.
There are two problems with Tyson's response, however.
There are three problems.
Third, the Columbia accident was a disaster. 9/11 was a terrorist act of war.
-PJ
"Oh, Hai, Neil. Remember how you spent your time with me on earth?"
Tyson is not a scientist except of the Pseudo variety. He has not the skeptical disposition of a scientist. For him all hypotheses that have ideological usefulness are “settled science.” For a scientist there are NO settled questions, no fields closed to inquiry.
This guy turned out to be real tool just like Bill Nye (no there is an angry little liberal).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.