Topeka, KS — One wonders if Washington Post reporter Peter Slevin was even in the same room with the AP’s John Hanna, Wichita Eagle’s Josh Funk or Barbara Hollingsworth from the Topeka Capital Journal, or any of the other dozen journalists attending.

For some inexplicable reason, the Washington Post’s reporting on the Kansas debate over evolution is completely out of step with most other major media covering the story (here, here, and here).

Funk reports today that:

The debate centers on proposed changes to Kansas school science standards, designed to encourage a more critical approach to evolution, that the state board will vote on later this summer.

The AP, the Kansas City Star, and the Topeka Capital Journal all basically agree in their reports that this is the issue.

Not Slevin at the Post. He’s still hung up with creationism — something no one in Kansas is even talking about anymore. And, he still mistakenly thinks this is about intelligent design.

This week’s battle is focused on Kansas, where State Board of Education hearings begin Thursday on evolution and intelligent design, a carefully marketed theory that challenges accepted understandings of Earth’s origins in favor of the idea that a creator played a guiding role.

Will the Washington Post ever get around to accurately and fairly covering this issue? I’m not holding my breath.

The hearings start here in Kansas momentarily and I hope that Slevin, and other media in attendance, will report what is actually said, rather than resorting to tired stereotypes that now seem sadly out of step.