CNN on Creationism

Michael Smerconish interviewed creationist Ken Ham on CNN last night. It started off with an endorsement ("If you`re looking for a great vacation for the family this summer, you might want to forget about Disney World or Six Flags and try the brand spanking new Creation Museum in Kentucky") and then continued with softball questions ("so dinosaurs co-existed with man, with Adam and Eve?") and statements of support ("what I`m upset about is when we see like we`re giving shelter to the kids by hiding them from different theories [creationism] that are out there"). Reading the transcript, it becomes very clear that Smerconish is just setting Ham up to give his spiel, without even a whiff of criticism. But still, even with these easy set-up questions, Smerconish assures Ham that "I'm not giving you a workout," and that "I want to take my kids to your -- to your place."

Then the interview ends:
HAM: You know, there`s information being censored from the public. I believe that they all need to hear this and be challenged in their thinking. I was taught to be a teacher, to teach students critical thinking skills, so I think that`s a great idea.
SMERCONISH: Amen to that, and no pun intended. Thank you, Dr. Hamm. Appreciate you being here.

C is for Crank

Ken Ham, the bearded author of "A Is For Adam" and "D Is For Dinosaur," recently opened a museum of creationism in Kentucky. In it, Ham uses religious dioramas to tell the story that the bible is literally true. Using the literal truth of every word of the bible as his infallible starting point, Ham then goes on to intermittently make use of long-ago disproved ideas to justify his position that the past few hundred years of scientific research in biology, physics, astronomy, geology and paleontology are all wrong. In its place, Ham asserts that the earth is just 6,000 years old, that plate tectonics raced the continents away from each other in a matter of days, and that man and dinosaur once walked together in the garden of Eden.

The National Center For Science Education (NCSE) touches on the media coverage here. Overall, I'd say that it's been pretty poor. Rather than laying out what Ken Ham claims in his museum and why it is wrong, most news organizations have put out weak "balanced" accounts such as this:


Notice how this segment has about two and a half minutes of Ken Ham claiming, without any explanation of what his reasoning is, that the bible is literally true and that he has a bunch of science to back that up. Counterbalancing this is only 30 seconds of a single scientist saying "that's not very plausible," also without any of the reasoning. Nowhere in this segment, or in any other that I've seen on CNN, have they informed the audience of what any of the arguments are.

The New York Times has an equally ineffective and friendly account of the museum here. Why do journalists find it so hard to call a spade a spade? Why do they always fall back on the "oh there's also an alternative viewpoint" angle instead of actually evaluating the claims that people make? Certainly CNN and the NY Times must have some actual scientific journalists...

EDIT: The Los Angeles Times does a better job here:
"The museum, a 60,000-square-foot menace to 21st century scientific advancement, is the handiwork of Answers in Genesis, a leader in the "young Earth" movement. Young Earthers believe the world is about 6,000 years old, as opposed to the 4.5 billion years estimated by the world's credible scientific community. This would be risible if anti-evolution forces were confined to a lunatic fringe, but they are not."

EDIT #2: Boykoff's Balance As Bias talks about a similar phenomenon in another area of science journalism.

BONUS CBN COVERAGE:


BONUS FOX NEWS COVERAGE:

BONUS: And here's a video of a convicted felon giving a speech at an unaccredited college on the same topic, saying basically the same things. He even opened a creationism theme park a few years back.

48%

According to a recent Newsweek poll, 48% of the American population rejects the scientific theory of evolution. Out of 34 countries surveyed, we ranked 33rd. Only Turkey is more averse to the idea.

In related news, Ken Ham is still traveling the country to teach children that man and dinosaurs co-existed just like in the Flintstones: