October 11, 2009

• Richard Dawkins Discovers Homo Windbagus

  Last night, famed biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins made an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, and a more illuminating and revealing six minutes of television I can't imagine.  It was educational, not because of the content of the interview but due to the stark contrast of the participants' knowledge and understanding of the subject at hand.   I had limited anticipation about the interview despite being highly familiar with both figures.
  
  After September 11, I began to follow politics more closely, or should I say at all.  When it was clear that Bill O'Reilly was an established media star, I watched his show out of curiosity.  Over time, I became less and less impressed but continued to watch as his popularity increased and the broadcasting major in me yearned to understand why.  Long story short, I have seen pretty much every episode since 2002.  It has become less about keeping informed (ha!) and more about studying the "journalistic" tactics and style of (sigh) America's most watched media figure.
   
  During my senior year of college, I needed 3 additional credits and decided to take an introductory astronomy class just for fun.  It planted a seed that, over the following years, would develop into a strong interest in the natural sciences, particularly astronomy and biology.  I seldom read anything other than science nonfiction books anymore and I'm always anxious see science first hand, hence my trips to Body Worlds 3 and Fermilab.  And after 5 months of on and off reading and incessant highlighting, I'm 85 pages from completing the epic journey in The Ancestor's Tale by .... Richard Dawkins. 
  
  The limited aniticipation I had for this interview was for good reason.  While both men are comfortable public speakers, they are accustomed to two very different formats.  Tonight, they would unfortunately be utilizing O'Reilly's which I've noticed is custom-made to entertain rather than inform his viewer, hence his show's success.   O'Reilly's interviews are 5-7 minutes, and if you are presenting an opposing viewpoint, you get half that if you are lucky.  O'Reilly masterfully uses this to his advantage in every way possible.  In this particluar interview, Dawkins spoke for about 1 min. 40 sec during a four-minute interview.   Right away you can see the problem - Dawkins is an intellectual and a scholar who discusses highly complex ideas and concepts.  He gives lectures, writes lengthy papers and books and engages in lengthy debates.  In other words, 15 second soundbytes are far from sufficient for making his points.  In addition to this, you'll notice that when O'Reilly speaks, he makes a shotgun spray of claims (science provides no moral framework, Jesus is still influential today, science doesn't know everything, there are more believers than non-believers), some of them only tangentially related, and then Dawkins gets to respond - but to which one and for how long before being interrupted.  This common tactic often makes O'Reilly's opponents look unprepared and incompetent despite having a stronger case for their side.  But Dawkins handled himself pretty well, and that's what usually pushes Bill to make over-the-top statements.  In this case, he actually claimed that preventing "divine intervention" from being a plausible explaination in science class is a form of fascism.  Bravo.
  
  On most nights, I have an admittedly lacking but passable knowledge of the subjects discussed on the O'Reilly factor.  But every once in awhile, a subject springs up that's right up my alley.  Bill's vast ignorance of science education and policy, the scientific method, and even what science is floored me.  Yet, he spoke with such conviction and certainty in opposition to someone whose grasp on those subjects is world- renowned.  What about all the other times Bill speaks so strongly?  If he's half as clueless then as he was tonight, his ratings are scarier than anything else I've seen this month. 
  
  On Monday, I'm making another quest for scientific knowledge - I'm going to the University of Indiana to see if I can get Richard Dawkins to autograph my copy of his new book, maybe get a picture with him.  But, he'll also be speaking.........for two hours.........uninterrupted.  I might learn more there than 7 years of watching "the Factor".

  • 3:18 am
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