a bit out of place?
I am a bit taken aback by this article, coming as it does from a website and a writer who, as the article states, are no friends of the creationist movement.
The article seems to be taking a somewhat perverse delight in RD's discomfiture, For example, it seems to suggest that RD is (somehow) getting a taste of his own medicine. But this just doesn't add up. Anyone being interviewed by RD should have no illusions whatsoever about what the pitch of the program is going to be. If you are not aware of the reputation of the person or organisation that wants to interview you, you check them out beforehand, and that would be an easy in the case of Richard Dawkins. Once you are done with the interview, you must still give your consent, and you can decide to withhold it on the basis of what actually transpired.
As an aside, it was bemusing to see how many people just queued up to be interviewed by RD for the recent "Enemies of Reason" series, surely knowing full well that the eventual broadcast would not be friendly to them. Why they went ahead with it is their business. Most sensible people would behave otherwise however.
In this case, there is a very strong suspicion that certain interviewees were deliberately deceived as to the ultimate aim. PZ Myers (for one) appears to have had a similar experience to Richard Dawkins:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/08/im_gonna_be_a_movie_star.php
'False pretences', anyone? Note that it does not matter that the interviews themselves may have given no clues as to what the actual goal of the film was to be. In fact, you can bet that they didn't, or otherwise these and other interviewees would probably have cottoned on very quickly and put a stop to matters. It is possible to make use of a given interview to support more than one point of view, except that in this particular case, the interviewees were deceived as to what that would be.
Such dishonesty is, I'm afraid, typical of creationists.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
