CNN correspondent Max Foster’s short report about Richard Dawkins on Tuesday’s Situation Room played more like a commercial which promoted the militant atheist’s new book. Despite Dawkins’s past inflammatory statements about Christianity, Foster only labeled him “an outspoken critic of creationism....[whose] atheist views have put him at the center of controversy” [audio clip available here].
Anchor Suzanne Malveaux’s introduction for the correspondent’s report highlighted the 150th anniversary of the printing of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” and how Dawkins was a “controversial successor [to Darwin] carrying the torch for evolution.” Foster gave a very basic description of Dawkins’s career during his report, only mentioning his controversial stances only in passing. Video straight from the Richard Dawkins Foundation ran on-screen as Foster, an anchor for CNN’s sister network CNN International, gave his voice-over.
FOSTER: Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book ‘The Selfish Gene,’ which explores the origins of life. An outspoken critic of creationism, Dawkin’s atheist views have put him at the center of controversy. Today marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s seminal work, ‘On The Origin of Species.’ Darwin’s description of a theory of evolution, that populations evolved over the course of generations through a process of natural selection, is the very basis on which Dawkins builds his thesis. The scientist’s latest argument for evolution, versus creationism, is titled ‘The Greatest Show on Earth, The Evidence for Evolution.’ Max Foster, CNN, London.
A CNN graphic during the report also described the biologist as “Charles Darwin’s Rottweiler,” but this doesn’t describe the extent of Dawkins’s intolerance for religion, specifically Judaism and Christianity. MRC President Brent Bozell highlighted one key quote from the atheist’s best-selling book, “The God Delusion” in a 2008 column:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, blood-thirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Here’s a clue, CNN: Richard Dawkins is no mere “outspoken critic of creationism.”
