Late dresser

[vakkotaur]

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. -- Winston Churchill

A few weeks ago there was a flap about the National Park Service being pressured by the Bush administration to give a creationist view - or at the very least not give the geological facts as we understand them - about the age of the Grand Canyon. This story was, for some, "too good to check" and so it wasn't checked. It lives or lived on, such as in this erroneous Doonesbury comic. One place that really should have been more skeptical was eSkeptic that rather curiously also didn't check it out until called on it. When they did (follow that last link) they found it was a load of dingos kidneys. In fact, when they called PEER (the originators of the story) on it, they backpedaled and retracted the claim. Somehow I rather doubt that will get nearly as much publicity.

Comments

[bronxelf-ag001.livejournal.com]

I'll post it. I posted the original, I can post this one too.

My opinion hasn't changed one bit about Creationists or Intelligent Design believers, but I can totally post this.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

There's an amazing amount of stuff being posted to make sure a Democrat wins the next presidency, I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

If that's what this is, it's rather desperate (or perhaps arrogant) as why else make something up? There's plenty of stuff that could (and will) be used in the coming elections that's a matter of record.

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

Religion sells. In some way it's more of a fire-starter than politics nowadays (maybe it's now that Democrats control both the House and the Senate that politics isn't quite as hot as before (althoguh, don't get me wrong, it's still a hot button topic) Get people hopping mad, talk about religion (take either viewpoint, it'll get the same effect.) If you can work politics in (really easy in the US), then you've got a guaranteed firestorm. Good publicity.

"There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin." - Linus van Pelt

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

The thing is, if someone wants to be critical of either the administration or the creationists there's no great need to make anything up. Even combining the religion and politics angle can be done with the whole faith-based initiative thing, though perhaps without the sensationalism. Making stuff up (and getting caught it) only hurts ones own cause, unless perhaps the cause is comedic -- but this wasn't from the likes of The Onion.