Having now viewed and "live-blogged" Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, I want to step back and examine the program itself. This may require several postings. Today, let's look at the sources Nova sought out for the program.
We are told fairly early on that the plaintiffs turned to the Nick Matzke of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) for research. Also identified as being associated with the NCSE is Eugenie Scott, although Nova doesn't mention that she is Executive Director of NCSE.
Here are some other witnesses and experts used by Nova, with {how Nova identified them}, and some additional background I dug up.
Ken Miller: {Brown University, biologist, and co-author of textbook being reviewed by school board}, NCSE Supporter. See the NCSE listing of Supporters and Officers here.
Kevin Padian: {UC Berkeley}, President of NCSE. Dr. Padian, by the way is the person at the beginning of the show who said that ID "makes you stupid", an expression of bigotry unmatched by anyone else in the program.
Barbara Forrest: {A philosophy professor and author}, Member, NCSE board of directors.
Rob Pennock: {Michigan State University}, long-time NCSE member and a recipient of NCSE's Friend of Darwin award in 2002.
Plaintiff experts used by Nova with no direct link to NCSE: Neil Shubin, David DeRosier.
So, I count 7 witnesses for the plaintiffs, 5 of whom are closely associated with NCSE, 3 of whose ties to the NCSE were not revealed to us by Nova; and 2 experts with no apparent direct ties to NCSE.
It looks to me like Nova wanted to hide the degree of involvement of the NCSE in the preparation of the program. Why else conceal the ties between 3 of their experts and the NCSE, especially when one of the experts is the president of the NCSE?
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3 comments:
Very interesting, Charles! I wish I had been able to see this thing live. It will most likely repeat, though, so I'll watch for it.
It is fascinating that the "enlightened" feel that they must stack the deck in these things. Apparently their "truth" needs more support than THE truth. Much more support.
Friar Tuck,
The program is also available on-line, at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/. And the transcript is at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3416_id.html
Thanks for the pointer, Charles!
There's a very interesting interview with Philip Johnson posted there as well.
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