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UPDATED: News Coverage of Evolution Critiqued Daily

NOTE: Intelligent Design (ID) has become the issue du jour with the mainstream media. Earlier this year we launched a blog to critique the media coverage of this issue. Be sure to visit Evolution News & Views, evolutionnews.org for regular updates.


SEATTLE, JAN. 4 — The misreporting of the evolution issue is the focus for the new blog Evolution News & Views, www.evolutionnews.org, maintained by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture (CSC).

“The legacy media seem to have rediscovered the evolution controversy with the recent lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Georgia,” says Rob Crowther, CSC director of communications. “The problem is that many reporters are sadly uninformed about the issue which has resulted in much of the news coverage being sloppy, inaccurate, and often overtly biased.

“There’s nobody else in the blogosphere right now holding the media accountable for how the debate over evolution is reported,” added Crowther. “We think that Evolution News & Views will do just that.”

According to the CSC, stereotypes and caricatures that would never be tolerated in stories about minorities are routinely offered up as “facts” in stories about scientists who are skeptical of Darwin’s theory.

“For too many reporters, the controversy over evolution is simply a rehash of the old movie, “Inherit the Wind,” said John West, associate director of the CSC. “They continue to simplify this as a battle between stick-figure fundamentalists on one side and the enlightened champions of science on the other, when in reality there are serious debates amongst scientists. This isn’t the old trope of religion vs. science; this is science vs. science.”

The CSC reports that many in the media seem determined to offer up their own opinions rather than report objectively about this issue. Other reporters are simply careless and report half-truths and distortions without ever bothering to check them out.

“We’re going to use this blog inform, analyze, and expose how the news media cover — and fail to cover — the scientific controversy over Darwinian evolution,” said Crowther. “We not only plan to offer critiques and corrections to major news stories, we will also offer behind-the-scenes glimpses at journalists and how they operate when they report on this issue.”

Additionally, Evolution News & Views will link to other articles, sites, and blogs of interest related to the ongoing debate over how to teach evolution, and the wider discussion of the emerging scientific theory of intelligent design.

Discovery Institute

Discovery Institute promotes thoughtful analysis and effective action on local, regional, national and international issues. The Institute is home to an inter-disciplinary community of scholars and policy advocates dedicated to the reinvigoration of traditional Western principles and institutions and the worldview from which they issued.