That Liberal Media

This article on the Christers' efforts to teach their religion as "science" perfectly illustrates mass media's willingness to bend over backward to "avoid liberal bias." First, you present both sides of an issue (one based on facts, one based on a right-wing, "faith-based" worldview) as two views of a big controversy. Then you spend a page and a half giving each side their say. Finally (if then), you present the facts that support (duh) the fact-based worldview. So it is with the so-called theory of "intelligent design." The underlying assumption is that a lot of Americans are prepared to believe in superstition over science, so this somehow legitimates teaching that belief as science--or, worse, that teaching the facts as we're able to test them (over the past four hundred years of scientific inquiry) is somehow "controversial."