A reader writes to chastise me for accusing Diane Rehm of bias in booking a prominent Baptist theologian to face off against a scientist in a program dedicated to Intelligent Design
theory:
If you had actually listened to the Diane Rehm show, you would have heard her say that she tried to contact Behe both at work and at home, and the Discovery Institute as well, and none of them returned her phone call.
A fair complaint. If her producer really did try to get the Discovery people on the phone, but they wouldn’t respond to her, then they’re absolved.
Still, if I were booking a show about intelligent design, I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking a religious authority to go head to head with a scientist over a question of science. I’d want my listeners to know what the scientific case for ID is, and to listen to two scientists debate it. But anyway, if Diane Rehm’s people really did make a good-faith effort to get pro-ID scientists on the show, and failed, they didn’t deserve the criticism I leveled at them.