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Washington Post reporter mongers fear over South Dakota academic freedom bill

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And in other breaking news that’ll really surprise you, snowbanks continue to pile in Ottawa, Canada. 😉 Seriously, from Sarah Chaffee at Evolution News & Views:

Strauss provokes alarm about a lack of accountability — “maverick teachers” who can teach whatever they wish. However, SB 55 offers very limited freedoms. Indeed, the language of the bill says that teachers can only present information in an “objective scientific manner.” Under this legislation, they can only talk about “scientific information.” And they can do so only in classes aligned with state science standards. School administrators retain the authority to ensure that teachers follow all these guidelines.

Yet, quoting a local newspaper that quoted a science teacher in Sioux Falls, Ms. Strauss raises the specter of eugenics, of all things, which she suggests could be taught in science classrooms under this legislation. But no, the teacher is obviously wrong, because eugenics is not in the standards. The law does not authorize teaching topics outside of the state standards. In addition, teachers are only permitted to teach about topics objectively, so it should be clear that advocating eugenics would not come under the bill’s protection. More.

Decades ago, traditionally mainstream media could get away with this type of thing on any subject on which they felt called because there was no simple way for those who were misrepresented to correct the misinformation.

By a delicate balance, these gatekeeper media couldn’t do that with all subjects all the time, only with their pet causes. Darwinism in the schools was, of course, one of their pet causes, so that was one they freely misrepresented.

Fast forward: We are all online now. And the Washington Post is Jeff Bezos’s current hobby. Most of the frantic bellyaching we hear about “fake news” from former gatekeepers like them reflects the fact that now anyone can do what they used to do.

We can find out the facts about anything that matters to us anyway as long as the internet remains free. That’s bad news for the Post and possibly for the Darwin-in-the-schools lobby.

See also: Gravy train wreck: No Free Lunch for Darwinism in Texas?

and

What can we do about fake news that would not diminish real news?

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