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Intelligent Design on PBS

csense said:
...Just one more thing






If you really feel that the attitude portrayed in my post is propaganda, then you might want to go back in the thread and read it in context, since it's propaganda from this board.

You like to wait until everybody's stopped watching you to respond, perhaps?

No, I quoted YOUR propaganda, and pointed out your method of assertion, which does not stand up to even mild scruitiny. I've noticed your arrogant dismissal of facts in other threads here, now, too, and I'm starting to conclude that you're simply trolling.
 
No one ever answered the question: Is PBS still government-sponsored? I vaguely remember some Republicans promising they were going to cancel all funding for PBS a few years back, but I don't know what ever came of it.

If PBS is indeed self-sustaining now, then there's no Constitutional argument against that show.

But there's certainly a valid scientific one, as well as a general complaint about the need for a balanced discussion rather than just the pro-side.
 
I don't think the funding source matters (except to the extent that PBS may be courting Creationist funders, as well as any other potential sources)--PBS has shown "religious" shows before; exploring origins and beliefs of religions, philosophies, etc. But it was always clear that these shows were exploring religions, they never aired anything that presented religious thought as science, which is the case with "Unlocking".
 
Well, late to the party again. I read this thread when it was new but only just now got to see the program.

What a compelling piece of propaganda.

And not once was the word God spoken. Always just "intelligence". I guess that should be capitalized. ;)

No one yet can answer that big question (abiogenisis), so they just fall back on a comforting/comfortable explanation.

Well, I reject it for the very reason that it's only advantage is that it's comfortable. It lets them stop there and claim some kind of victory.

Sorry, too easy.

Oh and nice job Pupdog.
 
pupdog said:
I don't think the funding source matters (except to the extent that PBS may be courting Creationist funders, as well as any other potential sources)
As with any TV network, money talks. They're gonna cater to their sugar-daddies, and if private religious philanthropists want religious intellectual stuff, that's what PBS is gonna show. We can hate it, but reality is they have to appease their sponsors.

At some point, though, the "P" in "PBS" ceases to correspond to "public", and becomes "private", "parochial", etc. ...
 
Arrrrghhh!

I can't believe they're airing this in Los Angeles! I thought for sure this thing was only going to play in the south.

Nope, our local pbs station (the small one) KLCS is running this pile of junk tomorrow night!

Here's the link to the dates and times of upcoming airings:

http://www.illustramedia.com/PBSpage.htm

Looks like they have absolutely targeted PBS stations, and not cable stations, public access, or commercial.

They are BANKING on the intellectual and scientific Cache that PBS (used to) stand for. That's where they gain their "credibility".

I'm disgusted.


HANG ON....

EVEN MORE DISGUSTED... KLCS is run by the LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT!!!

This is a Public School instructional channel.

That's WRONG!!!


(Calling my School Board NOW!)
 
Going through someone I know there....

Looks like we might make sure it doesn't air. Fingers crossed.

I'll let everyone know more when I hear back.
 
Silicon said:
Pulled. It won't air on KLCS!

Really?

As a result of your interaction with the school board?

That's extraordinary news. I really would have assumed that the best you could hope for is a "one of our representatives would be happy to discuss your concerns, after the program has aired," type response.

Amazing.

And yet....is this a silencing of discussion?

I'm just curious does anybody else think we should be more concerned about equal time than pulling the programming?
 
Silicon said:
Pulled. It won't air on KLCS!
They still have it listed on their website for tonight at 10pm. Did they make an announcement somewhere?

edited to add: they have contraditory info. The daily schedule (for today), on the homepage doesn't have it. But the master schedule, sorted by program name, still has it for tonight.
 
Silicon said:
Pulled. It won't air on KLCS!
Most excellent! Congratulations.
:th:

If it ever aired, it should be with suitable disclaimers; it is essentially fraudulent since it masquerades as something it is not, science.
 
If it were pulled from a general license PBS station, that would be one thing, Andronyx.

But this is a station owned and operated by a public school district. It's an instructional tv channel.

Airing the show raises church/state issues. But moreover it's not a science show, it's religious programming masquerading as science.

It's slick, but the slickness isn't why you run an "educational" tv show. You run it because of the educational value of the information imparted. Stripped of that slickness the information is:

"A handful of christian 'scientists' believe the Christian God created the Earth, and here's why you should believe it too."

That message has no place being broadcast by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

No announcement has been made, or will be made, I suspect. The website hasn't been updated to reflect whatever show they will in fact run at 10 pm. But it has been pulled. Tune in tonight at ten for confirmation, but I believe my contact.
 
I was rather looking forward to seeing it, now that I've made the case for pulling it.

I guess I'll have to Segway over to my local religious bookstore and pick up a copy.


I kind of find the whole thing about this show deliciously nefarious. How it was snuck into the satellite feed, how it was created by a creationist cabal but packaged under the ficticious name of Illustra-media.

It's so...conspiracy theory.. I just LOVE IT!
 
Silicon said:
I was rather looking forward to seeing it, now that I've made the case for pulling it.

I guess I'll have to Segway over to my local religious bookstore and pick up a copy.



You drive a segway too!

You're like my new hero.
 
Andonyx said:

I'm just curious does anybody else think we should be more concerned about equal time than pulling the programming?

As I mentioned somewhere above, "equal time" was one of the reasons Maryland Public Television claimed for airing "Unlocking"--I agree with those who have said the major problem with the show was its false representation in what imight be taken to be educational or scientific programming. When I watched the show, I expected to see somethinng like the Nova presentation about 'Chariots of the Gods" (the show where they interviewed the locals, who said Yeah, we carved these things, then cooked them in mule manure to make them look old, and sold them to that sucker.)
 
Anyone tuning in right now to KCLS in Los Angeles will not see UML, but instead see a show about new emergent diseases like Ebola.


No announcement, no schedule-change. But no UML.

Boom baby.

Equal time may work in politics, but it's not how we do education, and it shouldn't be how PBS stations program. Otherwise I'm going to insist that my "Flat Earth Hour" be run every time they run some post-copernican nonsense about the supposed spherical Earth. ;-)

Maybe we can get schools to "Teach the Controversy" between those loony round-earthers and my growing number of scientists who have serious doubts about the Theory of Roundness. After all, it's just a THEORY. ;-)

I'll make a deal with the Creationists: I won't teach math in their church, they don't teach religion in my schools.
 
I agree that if the expressed purpose of the network, or that particular programming is educational, then by all means this is deceptive programming, and should be pulled.

It's just one of those cases where it's a tricky line on television since anyone can have their say, as long as anyone else who knows better can come along and use another hour to blow them out of the water.

But when I suggested equal time in this case, I was unaware of the funding ties to the LA school districts. I'm glad they made the right decision to pull the programming.
 

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