Oh lordy, it’s Cathy Lynn Grossman again. Again? Yes, there was once before. She’s a Templeton “Fellow,” too, class of 2005. Her schtick is to point in horror at some gnu atheist or other and say how shocking and evil it all is. This time it’s PZ. She’s hoping there’s going to be a Great Cracking of the Whip.
Now that online provocateur PZ Myers, the biologist whose popular Pharyngula blog features profane attacks on religion, is part of the ScienceBlogs lineup coming under National Geographic’s editorial control, will Myers have to evolve to new standards?
Ah the voice of censorious respectability and majority opinion – will someone at last be able to make PZ Myers stop saying things that Cathy Lynn Grossman doesn’t like? No. Grossman doesn’t get a veto, and she’ll just have to put up with that.
Just in case you’re wondering about whether Myers, who once outraged Catholics by calling the Eucharist just another cracker, frets over being offensive, here’s what he said in 2008 at Skepticon One, an event organized by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster:
“There’s no constitutional right that says you may not be offended.”
That’s right – there’s not. Grossman seems to think there is, or there should be. That’s silly.
Comments
23 responses to “Surely now they will shut him up”
I find this fascinating, because I don’t think people like Grossman have a clue about what is even offensive to believers. I wonder what use of language Grossman would consider acceptable? “I’m awfully sorry, but I really can’t help saying that I have trouble with this resurrection business”.
Clutching her Templeton pearls to her breast again? Oh the humanity! /melodrama
Maybe Templeton is paying journalists and bloggers per snark. Pay varies depending on which Gnu is being snarked. PZ has gotta be worth at least $2000 per snark. Dawkins is probably £18,000. Jerry Coyne is probably coming in at about $1200. Ophelia, you’re probably running at about $666. But I see your stock going up. Anyone have Templeton’s phone number?
I think it was Stephen Fry who once said, “So you’re offended. So fucking what?” I’m deeply offended to be held immoral for not lying.
Yeah, be a damned shame for them to see how science is conveyed by a scientist.
PZ Myers responds: “Bugger ’em.”
Man oh man, she’s really hoping that NatGeo will shut PZ up, isn’t she? She’s hardly even trying to pretend otherwise. (I see her column also makes heavy use of the classic technique of false objectivity: When you want to say, “I wish/hope/believe X”, just phrase it as “Is it possible that X?”)
The flaw in this analysis, of course, is that nothing at all would prevent PZ from departing for greener pastures if he chose to. Given the number of eyeballs he can draw, there’s no question that plenty of other media sites would love to take him aboard.
Why on earth do they think NatGeo have bought the rights to determine what PZ does or doesn’t say? He’s not a journalist with a newspaper or a network; he’s not an actor ‘owned’ by a studio – he’s a goddamned blogger – if they try to impinge restrictions on him he considers unreasonable, he’ll tell them to go fuck themselves with one or more unlikely objects (a decaying porcupine is the current Pharyngula standard item) and find – or simply create – a new home for himself, where I’m fairly sure everyone who currently reads him will go. And, of course, NatGeo’s new blog will see its readership drop by a couple hundred thousand hits a week.
Why are these people so unbelievably stupid to think that this is going to make even the slightest difference to PZ’s output? Sheesh!
Wowbagger is right. It is like these people don’t understand how a blog becomes popular in the first place. If PZ had no integrity, he wouldn’t be PZ and he also wouldn’t be (in)famous.
I wonder, is it good or bad that they aren’t intelligent?
I don’t know about the rest of you but I don’t see this ending in an amicable fashion.
In theory Nat Geo could simply reiterate the previous policy that the sciencebloggers had complete editorial control. The reason why this may not be an option (and so far the noises from them make it seem like it is NOT a viable option) is that NatGeo, in contrast to the Seed group, is much more vunerable to a concerted religious led boycott. Does any one of us not think that the likes of Bill Donohue will avoid this sort of tactic?
Apparently there will be a redrafting of the contracts in the near future. If I were PZ I would do my utmost to make sure to include some sort of cost to be incurred if NatGeo cave in to the likes of the Catholic League and try to silence him. Bill Donohue COULD get PZ thrown off the network but PZ should ensure that his new contract makes it plain that doing so will make him very rich but free to publish on another site.
Wait, I’m worth $2000 per snark? I’m a TRILLIONAIRE! Party at my house!
All these good americans would have silenced Paine, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Henry and dozens more. We woudn’t have a constitutional republic with a bill of rights. What part of “free speech” does this moron Grossman not understand?
I’m rereading these days about the 1938 Anschluss and how it was perpetrated with the help of many willing idiots who abandoned rights and principles in favour of Nazi law and order and jobs……..plus ca change plus c’est la meme shit!
Sure, it’s been done. But y’know, it bears repeating:
If we’ve a right not to be offended, Cathy Lynn Grossman is just gonna have to shut the hell up, too.
Sure, it’s specifically on accounta what I offensive, as of this writing…
(/But if they need more names, I’m sure I can get a petition together.)
When people say there’s a right not to be offended, they mean there’s a right for people who agree with them or who they like not to be offended. Nobody is claiming that I have the right to silence Rick Santorum or Focus on the Patriarchy. I am fucking well offended that they preach against who and how I love. I am offended when people claim that being poor is a sin, or being female or having skin of a particular color is a sign of sin. Where are the “right not to be offended” people when it’s an able-bodied person treating a disabled person as not really human, as happens every day in ways large and small.
I’m offended by PZ’s blasphemy of the number 1,000,000,000,000. Inquisition at my house!
And I’m offended that you’re offended. Hey, this is fun!
Jesus Christ. You want to talk about horrifying: she quoted PZ in context there as a BAD thing. Does she honestly believe people shouldn’t be allowed to offend others? Really?
I declare(and proclaim) myself Minister of Offense(not Offence). As head of the Ministry of Offense I shall sponser a program where strands of pearls (fake ones for I shall budget real ones and skim the ccost difference) shall be distributed for people to clutch to their bosom in shock and horror. Articles of furniture shall also be subsidized for people to stagger to and faint upon. My salary will, of neccesity, be an amount that will also cause citizenry to utilize the services of the ministry. Carry on…
I suppose I should add a tag – pearl clutching.
Yeah, and the first thing I’m gonna do when I buy the Dallas Mavericks is fire Dirk Nowitzki
@C. Taylor – Not really. It’s magic!
“Kingpin-atheist Richard Dawkins”? Excuse me? Atheism is a form of organized crime now?
Oohya – theists are always waking up to find bleeding horses’ heads in their beds.