Friday, November 11, 2005
Controlling the News
Yesterday, RSR, noted that the Discovery Institute had yet to let the readers of their blog, Evolution News and Views, know that the Dover School Board election -- which had received heavy national news coverage -- had gone against them.
Everyone, except Discovery, it seemed thought that was news -- something a site calling itself Evolution News and Views might, in the normal course of events, be expected to report.
Today, we learn more about Discovery's modus operandi when it comes to the news. Like the kid who takes his ball and his bat home with him when he doesn't get his way, Discovery won't play unless it gets to control the way the news is reported.
Here's the relevant excerpt from a KOMO (a Seattle television station) report by Kevin Reece:
Everyone, except Discovery, it seemed thought that was news -- something a site calling itself Evolution News and Views might, in the normal course of events, be expected to report.
Today, we learn more about Discovery's modus operandi when it comes to the news. Like the kid who takes his ball and his bat home with him when he doesn't get his way, Discovery won't play unless it gets to control the way the news is reported.
Here's the relevant excerpt from a KOMO (a Seattle television station) report by Kevin Reece:
Third Avenue is home to the Discovery Institute. The conservative think-tank promotes the idea of intelligent design being included in public school classrooms...
The Discovery Institute, however, would not agree to be part of this report for KOMO 4 News unless certain conditions were met.
They claim that in their campaign to promote the idea of intelligent design that their message is often "mischaracterized" when television news stories are edited together. They requested that to be part of the television news story that their interview be either "live" or "un-edited." Since that is something we did not offer the other participants in this story it would not be fair to offer it only to them.
