I particularly like this postmortem of last night’s panel on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It’s from the Internet Infidels (you can find more negative reviews of my performance on last night’s panel at talk.origins):
I was majorly disappointed in that The Daily Show chose a panel group format last night in their discussion of evolution. I think more harm than good was dealt to the side of evolution.
This is because there is currently a kind of understanding among evolutionary [biologists] scientists that any debate/forum which puts ID on the same level/platform as evolution only serves to advance in the public’s consciousness, a notion of validity for ID claims, and even lends the false impression that it is indeed science. Therefore, these evolutionary scientists will not participate in such venues, and they regularly refuse such invitations.
So I was disappointed that Larson chose to appear next to Dembski. Perhaps he considered it more important to advance himself at the expense of a very important principle.
And so, eventhough Dembski had very few words to say, he knew damned well that just showing up in a chair physically side-by-side with an evolutionary scientist would significantly advance the public perception of ID, regardless of the fact it was on The Daily Show. These creation [Discovery Institute] guys have very few, if any, other opportunities to do so — even in non-televised programs with virtually tiny audiences! And then to make the situation even worse, having a third person speak in support of “metaphysical consciousness reality” mumbo-jumbo just made the articulate sounding Dembski (seated in between) look that much more credible. ARRRGHHH!!!
So, IMO, Dembski was effectively the big winner last night. Too bad Stewart didn’t realize this.
For the source, go here.