Today’s L.A. Times reports that the California Science Center is being sued for cancelling the showing of a creationist film, “Darwin’s Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record.” The film, heavily touted by the Discovery Institute and featuring their work, looks pretty dire on paper, featuring, along with creationists Stephen Meyer, Jon Wells, and Paul Nelson (the latter a young-earther), the dupes James Valentine and Simon Conway Morris (who officially came out as a creationist this year).
The suit was filed by the American Freedom Alliance, self-described as “a movement of concerned Americans advancing the values and ideals of Western civilization.” They claim breach of contract; the California Science Center counterclaims that they weren’t allowed to vet the film’s publicity in advance.
It’s a mess, with some scientists decrying the film, while others, like Eugenie Scott, saying that the fracas surrounding the cancellation will give creationists far more publicity than simply showing it. And of course the Discovery Institute is loving the “controversy,” claiming “viewpoint discrimination” and arguing that they’re being stifled and eXpelled, while at the same time dragging the Smithsonian into the issue.
Indeed, the cancellation seems to be based more on protests by scientists than on legal technicalities, though it may well be resolved on the technicalities. The lesson is that scientific organizations should carefully examine the contents of films before agreeing to show them. How did this one slip under the radar?
h/t: Cathy Newman
What a load of manufactured defamation.
Makes sense though … almost every fraud working for the Disco crew is a lawyer. Lying assholes looking for their “god of the loopholes.”
The operative determinant is not “scientific” but “governmental”. The CSC (a state agency) opened its facilities to all comers (who could pay their fees) and made itself (at least) a “limited public forum”. As such, it could no longer determine the content their facility could be used for. Once it did that, it was constitutionally bound to to treat all organizations’ requests to use the facility equally, whether it be for scientific, religious or political purposes (or any combination thereof).
If so, they should probably go ahead and show it.
Informed people should write scathing reviews of it, if it’s as bad as it sounds.
And next time, the vetters need to be a lot more careful about their rules of access.
If so, they should probably go ahead and show it.
It’s too late now but the CSC sould have dealt with it the way the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History handled it when it faced the same problem … using the “controversy” as a teaching moment.
And next time, the vetters need to be a lot more careful about their rules of access.
The problem is that money-starved public museums can make a fair amount renting their facilities for private use and, once they do that, they can’t discriminate based on content.
Well in a nutshell – “what john said”
Whatever the outcome its a win for the cretins, creeps, k00ks and nutters at the Disco Institute. Refuse to show it and they get loads of PR while they fight the “establishment” (and dont they love to be the “oppressed” ones), show it and now they can spin it into proving creationism is valid science.
Creationists have no chance fighting fair so will constantly try to trick and sneak their way in.
It seems lying for jesus isnt a sin after all.
Some information is being lost.
http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2009/10/darwins_dilemma_expelled_becau.php
One of the comments:
Now, it’s a bit of a tempest in a teapot, but the DI was blatantly ignoring their contract and trying to leverage showing the event at the CSC into appearing that the CSC was promoting their movie, even dragging the Smithsonian name into it.
Ah, but it wasn’t the DI’s contract. The contract was with some other “think” tank. Basically, though, the Ham-fisted* DI screwed up the deal with their sneaky press release attempting to raise the brow of the event.
*as in Noah’s son!
How much advanced vetting is needed when the title of the film is “Darwin’s Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record”?
What happened? Did the creationists not tell them the name of the film when they set up the screening? Did the CSC not ask? Whaa?
To paraphrase the now egregious Conway-Morris:
Not another phucking foul-up!