"Representative Trantis"  wrote in message
>
> In 'The Blind Watchmaker, the Chapter 'Punctuating Punctuationism'
> he talks of Eldredge and Gould, stating
> "They have shouted their complaints...only to find that for this part of
> their message tyhe microphones went dead on them"
> He then states...
> "I can sympathise, for I have had a similar experience with a different
> set of microphones, in this case politically rather than religiously
tuned"
>
> What was he refering to?
>
Dawkins has fairly conventional leftist views (for an Oxford don). His
political opinions are of no real interest to the general public, so
journalists don't bother with them.
Rightly or wrongly Dawkins is seen as the face of British biology, and of
scientific atheism in particular. His views on evolution are well reported.
However evolution naturally lends itself to extreme right wing political
movements. Dawkins himself wouldn't draw racist or social Darwinist
conclusions from biology, but since his political opinions are of no real
interest, at this point the microphones go dead. I suspect that if Dawkins
was a British Nationalist Party member then he would be seen as an authority
on biology and politics and his views would be widely disseminated -
journalists need a good story. "Nazi evolutionary biologist" or
"left-wing
trendy professor" are types readers can identify. "Biologist says
evolutionary theory as espoused by Nazis not completely wrong but would draw
different political conclusions" won't cut it as a headline.
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