Re: New York Times Learns about Smithsonian ID Uproar from O'Lea ry's Web log, The Post-Darwinist

On 5/28/05, Denyse O'Leary <oleary@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> New York Times Learns about Smithsonian ID Uproar from O'Leary's Web log,
> The Post-Darwinist
>
> From today's New York Times:
>
> "News of the Discovery Institute's announcement appeared on a blog
> maintained by Denyse O'Leary, a proponent of the intelligent design
> theory,
> who called it "a stunning development." But a museum spokesman, Randall
> Kremer, said the event should not be taken as support for the views
> expressed in the film. "It is incorrect for anyone to infer that we are
> somehow endorsing the video or the content of the video," he said. "
>
> Reporter John Schwartz gets some stuff right, but a lot of stuff wrong.
> Not
> bad for a beginner.
>
> Read more at http://post-darwinist.blogspot.com/
>
> cheers, Denyse

Here's the text of the invitation (from Denyse's blog):

(Smithsonian Logo)
The Director of the National Museum of Natural History and Discovery
Institute cordially invite you to the national premier and evening reception
of The Privileged Planet: The Search for Purpose in the Universe

Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 6:00 p.m
National Museum of Natural History - Smithsonian Institution
Constitutuion Avenue at Tenth Street, NW - Washington, DC - Valet Parking
Available

Documentary Showing and Comments: 6:00 p.m. - Baird Auditorium
Reception 7:30 p.m. - Halll of Geology, Gems, and Minerals

Limited Seeting, please RSVP by June 10, 2005 by mail or email
xxxx@discovery.org

(Discovery Institute Logo)

From the Smithsonian Web Site [emphasis mine]:

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/specialevents/policy.html

SPECIAL EVENTS POLICY

Corporations and organizations making an unrestricted contribution to the
National Museum of Natural History may co-sponsor an event in celebration of
their gift. Your gift helps to support the scientific and educational work
of the Museum. Personal events (i.e. weddings, etc.), fund raising events,
and events of a religious or partisan political nature are not permitted.
Cash bars, raffles and the display or promotion of commercial products are
also prohibited.

All events at the National Museum of Natural History are co-sponsored by the
Museum and must be planned in conjunction with one of the Museum's Special
Events Coordinators. The Special Events Coordinator will be required to
approve all event plans, including invitation text, speaking program, the
use of logos, and vendors. The name of the Museum and the Smithsonian
Institution may not be used on any document without prior approval by the
Museum.

Caterers working within the Museum must have the required $1 million
liability insurance certificate on file at the Smithsonian. Although
co-sponsors may work with the caterer of their choice, the Museum reserves
the right to review and approve the choice of caterer in order to assure
that they are capable of working safely within the Museum and are aware of
the catering limitations within the building. The Museum's special events
staff can also provide a list of caterers and other vendors who have
successfully handled events in the Museum.

Once an event is approved, co-sponsoring organizations will receive a
confirmation
letter and an agreement form outlining the basic parameters of the event and
the fees. Required fees include the tax-deductible contribution and direct
costs (for overtime services which are provided by the Museum). The event
will be confirmed when the signed agreement form and full payment are
received by the Museum's Special Events Office. Payment is required prior to
the event. During periods of high demand, a non-refundable deposit may be
required. In these instances, the deposit will be considered an advance
payment on the required contribution.

For a complete copy of the Museum's special events policy, please contact us
by phone or email.
 From what I can tell this is what happened:

DI made an unrestricted donation of $16,000.

For the money given, they can have a celebration event. They proposed
showing the movie.

Smithsonian staff in order to comply with the policy needed to screen the
movie to make sure that it wasn't religious or partisan. Once that bar is
reached, they are obligated by policy to co-sponsor the event. This is the
context of the following two quotes:

The president of the Discovery Institute, Bruce Chapman, said his
organization approached the museum through its public relations company and
the museum staff asked to see the film. "They said that they liked it very
much - and not only would they have the event at the museum, but they said
they would co-sponsor it," he recalled. "That was their suggestion. Of
course we're delighted."

Mr. Kremer said he heard about the event only on Thursday. He added that
staff members viewed the film before approving the event to make sure that
it complied with the museum's policy, which states that "events of a
religious or partisan political nature" are not permitted, along with
personal events such as weddings, or fund-raisers, raffles and cash bars. It
also states that "all events at the National Museum of Natural History are
co-sponsored by the museum."
The quote on the DI web site roughly covers the invitation text. When that
text was read to the Smithsonian PR guy he replied: "We'll have to look into
that." This can be bad news for DI because the Special Events Coordinator
needs to approve all invitation text and use of logos in advance. There is a
separate letter that tells DI what it can and cannot do. Hopefully,
everything they did was in accord with that letter.

Finally, here is what the DI director had to say about this:

"We are not implying in any sense that they endorsed the content, but they
are co-sponsoring it, and we are delighted. We're not claiming anything more
than that. They certainly didn't say, 'We're really warming up to
intelligent design, and therefore we're going to sponsor this.' "

 In conclusion, there is absolutely nothing that indicates Denyse's original
thesis that the Smithsonian is warming up to ID. Neither the Smithsonian nor
the DI make that claim. Rather, it is merely a thank you to a patron making
an unrestricted donation. Denyse making such a bru-ha-ha about this may put
the display of this movie in jeopardy and possibly further damage the DI.
Both the DI and the Smithsonian understood that the Smithsonian was not
endorsing ID. Now the Smithsonian may need to prove themselves. If you think
some ASA members are motivated to dissasociate themselves from ID, the
Smithsonian is much more motivated. They will be making sure that the
agreement letter was followed to the last jot and tittle. Further, there is
nothing that would keep the Smithsonian from putting the following sign on
their most overtly Darwinian exhibit:

This exhibit was made possible by a generous donation by the Discovery
Institute, Seattle WA.
Received on Sat, 28 May 2005 14:53:38 -0600