Salvo on the Media and Evolution
Way back when Evolution News & Views was launched in 2005, Rob Crowther pointed out that "there’s nobody else in the blogosphere right now holding the media accountable for how the debate over evolution is reported.” Thankfully, things have changed since then — just take a look at the latest from Salvo Magazine's blog, "The Media and Evolution," where Bobby Maddox takes on the latest issue of Wired magazine:
Having just completed Salvo 4 on intelligent design, I have been thinking a lot lately about how evolution is presented to the public by the popular media. Most typically, it comes in the form of off-hand comments in articles or columns on topics that have little or nothing to do with evolution itself. These pieces affirm Darwinism in passing, as though the matter has been fully settled—is as proven as gravity—and only a scientific Neanderthal would disagree.
Maddox takes one paragraph from the story as his example and gives an entertaining critique worth reading, including this telling note:
8. "Half of all Americans don't believe in evolution": Actually, only 13% of Americans believe in evolution by blind material causes, so this is just a lie. And perhaps the reason for this has less to do with our feeling threatened by evolution than by articles that make a lot of claims about evolution without backing them up.