Flirting With Mob Morality

Published on April 1, 2005

There’s nothing like being exposed to national ridicule by The New York Times to make a science museum rediscover its educational obligations to the community. Not two weeks after the Times reported on the decision of several southern Imax theaters not to show a documentary on deep sea volcanoes because the film briefly mentions evolution, […]

There’s nothing like being exposed to national ridicule by The New York Times to make a science museum rediscover its educational obligations to the community. Not two weeks after the Times reported on the decision of several southern Imax theaters not to show a documentary on deep sea volcanoes because the film briefly mentions evolution, The Charlotte Observer reports that one of the theaters, located in Charlotte’s local science museum, has reversed its decision, citing unexpected public interest. That’s not surprising; even The Revealer was scolded by a reader who missed the sarcasm in our write-up of the story. So how much many angry letters of protest were fired off at the theater itself? Some portion of the roughly 100 phone calls, emails and letters received by the museum in total, not all of which were critical of its original decision. Whatever the number of complaints, it’s probably more than usual for a science museum in a mid-sized city, but it’s also probably less than a good day’s work for Brent Bozell. We think tools like Focus on the Family’s email generator or Bill O’Reilly’s “Outrage Funnel” are tacky too, but unless the other side is ready to challenge the current conventional wisdom that popular outrage should govern all political decisions, from reproductive rights to nature films — and that would be a fight worth waging — they’re going to have to wade into the might-makes-right muck and learn the uncouth art of shouting louder than the next guy.

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