Draft email to: esweeney@kcpw.org, eray@kcpw.org
cc: news@kuer.org, Mike.Crane@wpr.org
For the FCC comment files, regarding KCPW, KUER, and Wisconsin Public Radio:
Here's the most recent things we've learned about the Templeton sponsored show, To the Best of Our Knowledge:
1. On KCPW, they receive it
for free. Presumably there's a similar situation over at KUER.
2. Popularity is more important than content at some public radio stations.
3. Stations receiving government funding refuse to cancel this religion-advocacy program.
Templeton is apparently enabling their flagship
To the Best of Our Knowledge
program to sneak under the radar, rather in a similar fashion to how
"creation science" advocates try to sneak religion into science class.
Same smoke & mirrors.
Remember when KCPW
lost 1010 AM to a Catholic radio station? I would
imagine that the current owners of 1010 AM in Utah would be more than
willing to their programs also on 88.3 and 105.3 FM in Salt Lake -
for free.
And I bet KCPW could find an audience for this. Or how about: Rush.
Howard Stern. Sports. Or some other radio equivalent of
porn? As long as
it's popular, that's the most important thing, right? But, here's a more
accurate and rational response to this Templeton-connected snake oil
being foisting upon us:
By Dr. Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago:
"...I know I bang on about Templeton and its prizes and huge grants, but I
see the Templeton Foundation as the #1 force in America devoted to
watering down science with religion, thereby confusing the two and
eroding habits of rational thinking..."
as from
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/templeton-uses-its-wealth-to-debase-philosophy/
Steve Paulson, a "journalist" on To the Best of Our Knowledge, has
been honored in a high profile way by the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism
Program in Science & Religion.
http://www.templeton-cambridge.org/fellows/showfellow.php?fellow=6
So, what's the deal with the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Program?
"The Templeton Foundation organizes an annual meeting in Cambridge where
science journalists are invited (and paid very handsomely, not to speak
but to listen! When were you last paid to go and be a part of the
audience at a conference?). A few years ago, when I was more naive than I
am now (and not knowing that the audience were being paid to listen) I
agreed to speak (unpaid) at one of these meetings (I described the
experience in The God Delusion.) If I were invited again, I
would decline – indeed I did decline when I was invited the following
year. One of this year's paid journalists, Edwin Cartlidge, wrote a
letter to Anthony Grayling and Daniel Dennett, soliciting their
cooperation. These two distinguished philosophers shared their
correspondence with a group of people, including me. Dan's and Anthony's
reasons for not cooperating with Templeton seemed to me so good, and so
well expressed, that I suggested that they should be more widely
publicized. All three gentlemen gave their permission. In Mr Cartlidge's
case it was especially gracious of him because he is obviously
vulnerable to being tarred with the Templeton brush. I hope that
commenters on this thread will reserve their fire for the Templeton
organization rather than Edwin Cartlidge himself. I see him as in much
the same position I was in when I agreed to go, a victim of exactly the
kind of subversion of science that Templeton is making its specialty.
Richard Dawkins"
as from
http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/3973
So, presumably this letter I am sending is reaching people who claim to be "journalists," right? Can you follow the money?
Dawkins claims that journalists
get paid
to go to Templeton sponsored conferences?!? And, their
camel's-nose-under-the-tent radio program To the Best of Our Knowledge
gets carried
for free on KCPW & presumably on other so-called public radio stations? What's going on here?
From Gil Gaudia:
"The Camel Is Heading for Your Tent
...
In October 2007, the Bible Literacy Project (BLP) reported that their glitzy textbook The Bible and Its Influence
had been adopted by the Alabama State Board of Education, which
unanimously approved it for statewide use as a comprehensive program.
"This is major news in the field of education," said Bible Literacy
Project Chairman Chuck Stetson. "While academic study of the Bible is
legal in all 50 states, this decision means that any school in the state
of Alabama can purchase our textbook with state-provided funds until
2013."
BLP is a study that was funded by the John Templeton Foundation, an
organization that attempts to appear ideologically neutral, but
nevertheless appears to be behind many efforts to "Christianize"
American politics and education, indeed the country. A typical example
of the type of funding The Templeton Foundation provides is one
announced recently by the Baylor University News, "the Institute for
Studies of Religion (ISR) has received a $378,862 grant from the John
Templeton Foundation to fund ISR's Initiative on the Economics of
Religion ... (F)our scholars [will use the funds] to investigate the
connection between religion and economic growth and the effects of
government intervention in religious markets on the practice of
religion."
According to Media Transparency, an organization that tracks funding
for conservative causes, a few of the recent top recipients of Templeton
dough (and how much dough), are self-evidently connected to
religion. They include "Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences"
($23,122,319); "Philadelphia Center for Religion and Science"
($4,811,892); "Science and Spirit Resources, Inc." ($4,632,933);
"Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science" ($4,762,514); and the
"Association of Unity Churches" ($3,509,971)..."
as from
http://www.infidels.org/kiosk/article782.html
On a recent
To the Best of our Knowledge program KCPW and KUER listeners were subjected to hearing a woman bemoan the fact that her son no longer believed in God.
Who's god?
Which god?
It's not up to my public radio
stations to ask that I believe in any gods or any religion. That's what
the Catholic station on 1010 AM here is for. It's what the other Bible
beater stations are for.
Enough is enough. The religions have their channel he Bible Beaters
have their channels. Rush has his. The sports freaks have theirs. And,
the little spaces taken up by public radio are supposed to be for the
rest of us - those of us who are children of the Enlightenment. Your
taking on this program is a betrayal of that and of our trust.