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Charles
Darwin

pseudoscience
Widespread scientific illiteracy has left
Americans defenseless against pseudoscientific babble.

"Something that is overlooked these days is the
influx of large amounts of money, bureaucratic power and influence and prestige
that has flowed into science over the last 75 years has turned large parts of
it into a careerist profession rather than the vocation it supposedly was. This
is important because there are a number of
scientific beliefs maintained in the face of contrary evidence which is
politically repressed and editorially swept under the carpet because those who
have built their careers on those reigning beliefs are
loathe to have them removed from
under their hard won elevated positions and from the textbooks they have
written." - Anthony Liversidge

THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS SENT TO
CNN BY FED EX (FOR DELIVERY,
12/22/08), BY FAX AND BY EMAIL December 19, 2008 Jim Walton, President
CNN Worldwide One CNN Center, 6 South Tower Atlanta, GA 30303
Jon Klein, President CNN/US One
Time Warner
Center New York, NY 10019
Dear Mr. Walton and Mr. Klein,
We are
writing on behalf of several national and international science journalism
organizations to express our strong concern about CNN's shortsighted decision
to cut its science, technology and environment unit in one fell swoop.
In wielding this
ax, your network has lost an experienced and highly regarded group of
science journalists at a time when science coverage could not be more important
in our national and international discourse.
The environment,
energy technology,
space exploration,
and biotech are crucial ongoing stories that will have growing prominence as a
new American president takes office and nations confront a wide range of
science-based global issues.
As the impacts of climate change
intensify, shows like "Planet in Peril" cannot make up for
informed daily coverage
of this important issue and
other science topics in
the public eye.
As with political and policy reporting, it is
important that the underlying science be covered by journalists with the skills
and knowledge to sort out competing claims.
Concerned as we are about
the dismissal of our colleagues-including the award-winning science reporter
Miles O'Brien in New York; Peter Dykstra, head of
CNN's science unit in
Atlanta; and five other science producers there-this letter is not about
individual journalists.
Rather, the wholesale dismantling of the
science unit calls into question CNN's commitment to bringing the most
informative science news to the general public, including the science-minded
younger audience.
If CNN
wants to be truly international, it will be at odds with the trend toward
increased science coverage in many parts of the world.
It is difficult
for us to imagine why CNN, which has earned a justifiably strong reputation for
its science journalism in the past, has opted to widen the gap in science
coverage rather than strive to fill it.
We would hope that you would
reconsider your decision and reassemble a cadre of well-trained science
journalists that would enable you to expand unfolding science news and in-depth
coverage, not shrink it.
Your action is an unfortunate symbol of recent
widespread cutbacks in specialty science journalism.
Our groups will
continue to push for more science coverage by the major media and to do our
part to promote the highest possible professional standards for communicating
complex science-based issues across the spectrum.
We plan to publicize
this letter as widely as possible to encourage further discussion of
the future of science
journalism.
Thanks for your attention.
Sincerely, Cristine
Russell, President, Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW)
russellcris@nasw.org
Mariette DiChristina,
President, National Association of the Science Writers (NASW)
mdichristina@sciam.com
Christy George, President,
Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) CGeorge@opb.org
Pallab Ghosh, President, World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ)
pallab.ghosh@bbc.co.uk

"I am increasingly dismayed by the devaluation of
scientific fact by its inclusion, by
superstitious
commentators, in opinions about purely
superstitious subjects.
Zev Chafets* derides "secular
liberals" for "profoundly"
believing in global warming.
Then
Zev Chafets* writes about
Armageddon as though
the latter is more likely to occur.
There is no such thing as "liberal" science .
Peer-reviewed scientific method has
no political party, race or relgious
creed and no objective but truth.
There is no disagreement among peer-reviewed scientific journals about
the fact of global warming and its
cause being human activity." - Sue Simmons
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This web site is not a commercial web site and
is presented for educational purposes only.

This website defines a
new perspective with which to engage reality to which its author adheres. The
author feels that the falsification of reality outside personal experience has
forged a populace unable to discern propaganda from reality and that this has
been done purposefully by an international corporate cartel through their
agents who wish to foist a corrupt version of reality on the human race.
Religious intolerance occurs when any group refuses to tolerate religious
practices, religious beliefs or persons due to their religious ideology. This
web site marks the founding of a system of philosophy named The Truth of the
Way of the Lumière Infinie - a rational religion based on reason which
requires no leap of faith, accepts no tithes, has no supreme leader, no church
buildings and in which each and every individual is encouraged to develop a
personal relation with the Creator and Sustainer through the pursuit of the
knowledge of reality in the hope of curing the spiritual corruption that has
enveloped the human spirit. The tenets of The Truth of the Way of the
Lumière Infinie are spelled out in detail on this web site by the
author. Violent acts against individuals due to their religious beliefs in
America is considered a "hate crime."
This web site in no way condones
violence. To the contrary the intent here is to reduce the violence that is
already occurring due to the international corporate cartels desire to control
the human race. The international corporate cartel already controls the world
economic system, corporate media worldwide, the global industrial military
entertainment complex and is responsible for the collapse of morals, the
elevation of self-centered behavior and the destruction of global ecosystems.
Civilization is based on cooperation. Cooperation does not occur at the point
of a gun.
American social mores and values have declined precipitously
over the last century as the corrupt international cartel has garnered more and
more power. This power rests in the ability to deceive the populace in general
through corporate media by pressing emotional buttons which have been
preprogrammed into the population through prior mass media psychological
operations. The results have been the destruction of the family and the
destruction of social structures that do not adhere to the corrupt
international elites vision of a perfect
world. Through distraction and coercion the direction of thought of the
bulk of the population has been directed toward solutions proposed by the
corrupt international elite that further consolidates their power and which
further their purposes.
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site are the views and opinions of individual human men and women that, through
their writings, showed the capacity for intelligent, reasonable, rational,
insightful and unpopular thought. All factual information presented on this web
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facts truthfully. Opinion and thoughts have been adapted, edited, corrected,
redacted, combined, added to, re-edited and re-corrected as nearly all opinion
and thought has been throughout time but has been done so in the spirit of the
original writer with the intent of making his or her thoughts and opinions
clearer and relevant to the reader in the present time.
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