No news continues to make news. Or maybe it’s agenda driven reporting making up news? Either way, this article trumpets the fact that Nebraskans need not worry that evolution will be replaced with intelligent design in science classes. Of course, that wasn’t being suggested and discussed anyhow. So, here’s a case of the media taking no news and goosing it into a “news” story.

Three members of the Nebraska Board of Education say they’re not aware of any effort by board members or the public to include intelligent design in Nebraska’s new science standards.
“I’ve had zero contact from anyone,” said board member Robert Evnen of Lincoln, who is on a committee reviewing the standards.

Why is not being asked to do something that nobody is talking about doing worth reporting on? Additionally, the new standards aren’t even being significantly rewritten.

Except for slight wording changes, that’s the same requirement as the 1998 standards they would replace.
“We’re treating evolution the way that we have it now,” Woodland said. “We expect the students to develop an understanding of biological evolution. There’s no reference to intelligent design at all.”

So what’s the story? There is simply nothing newsworthy to report here, so one has to wonder what was the driving factor to write this story? Something similar happened in Texas starting in 2007 (see here and here)

The drum beat of these evolutionary rain makers started up last summer when the Dallas Morning News published a thumb-sucker of a story about the majority of the state board of education’s opposition to inserting ID into Texas science classes. Even though it was clear that no one was proposing inserting ID into the curriculum, all of sudden Darwinists began chanting that the sky was falling.

Are Darwinists in Nebraska trying to create a controversy so that they can manufacture an unnecessary victory to claim? We shall see.