Leaked PBS Memo Reveals Improper Political Agenda

Discovery Institute via US Newswire ^ | 09/27/2001 | Discovery Institute

[Nora]

Discovery Institute: Memo Reveals 'Evolution' Agenda

U.S. Newswire
27 Sep 6:00

Leaked PBS Memo Reveals Improper Political Agenda Behind 'Evolution' Series, Says Discovery Institute

To: National Desk, Science and Education Reporters
Contact: Mark Edwards of the Discovery Institute, 206-292-0401, ext. 107;
e-mail: medwards@discovery.org

SEATTLE, Sept. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- An internal PBS memo made public today reveals an improper political agenda behind WGBH/Clear Blue Sky's ongoing series "Evolution", according to the Seattle-based Discovery Institute. The memo describes how "Evolution" will be used to influence government officials and promote political action in order to shape how evolution is taught in public schools.

Dated June 15, 2001, the memo bears the title "The Evolution Controversy, Use It or Lose It: Evolution Project/WGBH Boston" The document outlines the overall goals of the ongoing PBS series Evolution and describes the marketing strategy for the series. The complete text of the PBS memo is posted at http://www.reviewevolution.com.

According to the document, which was leaked by a source within PBS, one of the goals of "Evolution" is to "co-opt existing local dialogue about teaching evolution in schools." Another goal is to "promote participation," including "getting involved with local school boards."

In addition, the document identifies "government officials" as one of the target audiences for the series, and it describes a publicity campaign accompanying the series that will include writing op-eds for newspapers and "guerilla/viral marketing."

"Clearly, one purpose of 'Evolution' is to influence Congress and school boards and to promote political action regarding how evolution is taught in public schools," says Discovery Institute President Bruce Chapman. "In fact, 'Evolution's' marketing plan seems to have the trappings of a political campaign."

"Public television is funded in part by American taxpayers, and it should be held to high standards of fairness. It is inappropriate for public broadcasting to engage in activities designed to directly influence the political process by promoting one viewpoint at the expense of others," said Chapman.

According to Discovery Institute's John West, the political agenda behind "Evolution" is made even more explicit by its enlistment of Eugenie Scott as one of the official spokespersons for the series.

Scott runs the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), an advocacy group that by its own description is dedicated to "defending the teaching of evolution in the public schools." According to the group's Web site, the NCSE provides "expert testimony for school board hearings," supplies citizens with "advice on how to organize" when "faced with local creationist challenges," and assists legal organizations that litigate "evolution/creation cases."

"The NCSE is a single-issue group that takes only one side in the political debate over evolution in public education," says West, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Seattle Pacific University. "It is inappropriate for public television to enlist NCSE's executive director as an official spokesperson for this program."

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Founded in 1990, Discovery Institute is a non-profit, non- partisan public policy center for science, technology, regional development, environment, and defense. More information about the Institute and its activities can be found at www.discovery.org.

KEYWORDS:
SCIENCE, EDUCATION

-0-
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
09/27 06:00
Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire

[dbbeebs]

I propose that we can see macro evolution, in the human community right now. (Downs syndrome)

This is a very good example. Thanks for posting it. There are literally hundreds of human mutations
which infrequently come to light. Most of them are evolutionary dead ends.

[PatrickHenry]

What you seem to call faith, I would call Inductive Reasoning. It is an important step in any theoretical endeavor.

Darn, you said it before I had a chance to do it myself. And you did it better than I would have done.

[longshadow]

EVOLUTION is Science--inevitable! What a mantra-MONSTER!!

Vorpal blades (duct tape) go (cardboard tube) snicker-snack, snicker-snack (gerbil)!

[VadeRetro]

That would seem to say that Life is necessary as a prior condition for Evolution to proceed. Thus, you have just given credibility to the concept that a living Designer is required as a precursor for both Evolution and Life.

It also said your argumentum ad vehiculam doesn't hold water. Yes, there was no evolution until some molecule started replicating itself with imperfect accuracy. Abiogenesis is at best a separate topic and doesn't rescue the creationist strawman sillies that litter this thread. The evidence points to one and only one instance of life coming from non-life on this planet.

[dbbeebs]

If the evolutionists could disprove the Bible

The converse, "disproving evolution" doesn't make the creation myth true.

[RadioAstronomer]

Perhaps the best way to get back at PBS is to do without television entirely! I've been TV FREE since 1974, and I encourage others to do likewise. One might as well kick the television set right out the window!

There is both good and bad on TV. I get a tremendous amount of information from certain programs. I just don't watch it 5 hours a day like some.

[PatrickHenry]

Please come up with an instance within 300 years of the present time to recieve credit.

I recall reading about witches being killed in Mexico. Not in the last 20 years or so, but not long before that.

[VadeRetro]

I disagree. In fact, there is NO EVIDENCE of an inanimate object evolving into an animated life form.

Again, cornered on your unsupportable anti-E spewing, you change the subject. Do you imagine no one can see this?

[VadeRetro]

I recall reading about witches being killed in Mexico.

Maybe it was in Ireland.

[longshadow]

I think the church has come along way.

The church is not the issue. It is the religious fanatics, and their willingness to murder people, that is at issue.

The previous respondent already gave a contemporary example. I added an historical perspective, as the original comment used the word "habit." Being that "habits" are behavior repeated over time, the historical component is perfectly valid in adjudging whether religious fanatics have habitually tended toward murdering their fellow man, and continue to do so today.

The evidence indicates they do, and still are.

[JoeSixPack1]

LA JOLLA- In a simulation of the days when the Earth was covered in primordial ooze, researchers at the University of California, San Diego have synthesized pantetheine, an ingredient considered essential for the development of life on the planet. The nature of the origin of life remains one of the most intriguing questions in biology. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego's Specialized Center of Research and Training in Exobiology are approaching the question by simulating environmental conditions as they are thought to have existed in "prebiotic" times.

The researchers are studying the abiotic synthesis of biomolecules to determine which ones could have been present on Earth before life arose and, thus, may have been important to the first living organisms.

The UCSD research team is led by Dr. Stanley Miller. Dr. Miller is well known for his 'primordial soup' experiment conducted in 1953. At that time he demonstrated that amino acids could be formed by passing an electric current through a flask of methane. This suggested that life could have arisen from materials and conditions present in early Earth history.

Dr. Miller believes many other chemicals in addition to amino acids would have to have been present to facilitate the transition to living organisms. In particular, the presence of pantetheine could have enhanced the transition process.

Pantetheine is related to coenzyme A, an essential component for protein formation. Coenzyme A is used by every known organism to assist in a wide variety of chemical reactions and it is possible that in the very earliest organisms this role was played by pantetheine alone, notes Miller.

In their recent experiment, the UCSD scientists heated a mixture of pantoyl lactone, beta- alanine and cysteamine at 40 degrees C (105 degrees F). All three chemicals are believed to have been present on the early Earth. Among the other chemicals formed was pantetheine. This suggests pantetheine could have been created at the margins of evaporating pools of water in prebiotic times.

"These components are extremely soluble and so would have been preferentially concentrated in evaporating bodies of water, for example on beaches and at lagoon margins. Our results show that amide bonds can be formed at temperatures as low as 40 degrees C, and provide circumstantial support for the suggestion that pantetheine and coenzyme A were important in the earliest metabolic systems," noted Miller.

There are two main hypotheses regarding the prebiotic synthesis of coenzymes. One, the "RNA world" hypothesis, holds that coenzymes were part of the covalent structure of RNA, and assisted in the RNA-based metabolism. Another hypothesis suggests that the RNA world was preceded by a thioester world. According to that hypothesis, coenzyme A played an essential role in the activation of amino acids and hydroxy acids in peptide synthesis.

[wardaddy]

Perfect clarity would profit the intellect but damage the will.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others

Pascal would appear to be an objectivist. I am not one as you may have guessed but I readily confess that I lack the appetite for that battle again today on this forum.

I appreciate your nod about not bashing Christianity.

I do sort of like the first Pascal quote above. I will take will over clarity slightly in trying times like these. I hope our leaders do as well. It sort of explains the Powell/Rumsfeld struggle at the moment. Obviously I'm a Rumsfeld sort of guy.

[PatrickHenry]

Witch Killings.

[marsis]

Thank you for the civility. Hitler was born into the Catholic faith and attended mass throughout his childhood. I have read where he used his faith to foster the holocast, tithed to the church until his own demise, and was never excommunicated by the Catholic church. Again, not picking on faith, and I will admit, my knowledge is limited by what I have read, and there is much out there to mis-inform and mis-lead. I am not a historian nor an authority on Hitler, but few know of his ties with the Catholic church. This is not an indictment of the faith, only what evil one can do in the name of God, ie, the Taliban.

[Southack]

"It also said your argumentum ad vehiculam doesn't hold water."

What makes you think that? What did reproduction have to do with the very first life-form-evolving-from-an-inanimate-object, for instance?! Surely you aren't going to claim that inanimate objects reproduce offspring!

I pointed out that vehicles can retain similarities among models over the years. Surely you don't disagree with that fact?!

With the automobiles, we KNOW for a fact that it is the designers who are making the changes, NOT the cars per se themselves.

That's very analagous to how life started and was modified over the ages, whether or not it is the correct explanation is another matter altogether, however.

The car-example simply serves as a rather useful method to get those indoctrinated in psuedo-science (e.g. Evolutionary Theory) to think outside their small boxes.

With the cars, almost anyone can see that an Intelligent Designer is required to make changes to the various car models over the years.

[f.Christian]

Did you get lost going back to the frogrepublic...maybe your eggs are gone--lost!

[Southack]

"Again, cornered on your unsupportable anti-E spewing, you change the subject. Do you imagine no one can see this?"

Excuse me? What specific numbered post above shows me talking about something off-the-subject-of Evolution?

Either show the post # or admit that you are a liar.

[Pete]

The converse, "disproving evolution" doesn't make the creation myth true.

Obviously, I have not made this claim. Something is either true or it is not true. It cannot be MADE true by any human reasoning or argument.

[Southack]

"researchers at the University of California, San Diego have synthesized pantetheine, an ingredient considered essential for the development of life on the planet. The nature of the origin of life remains one of the most intriguing questions in biology."

And it remains an intriguing question because there is NO EVIDENCE that inanimate objects ever evolved into a living form, which would be REQUIRED for Darwinism to explain the very first step in the Evolutionary Process.

Synthesizing pantetheine isn't even the issue. Pantetheine might be found in living creatures, as can vinegar and various acids/proteins, but to what effect?? In fact, one can take a fully formed but deceased life form and STILL not be able to animate that non-living object in the lab, so being able to form a precursor to the building blocks of said life form hardly gets us anywhere.