The History Channel To Air Pure Propaganda "Missing Link" Documentary About "Ida" Fossil

Here is another ad from the History Channel website: http://www.history.com/content/the-link/watch-video?bcpid=23297146001&bclid=23711371001&bctid=23722126001.

The History Channel plans to air a documentary about the newly announced "Ida" fossil. A voice in the ad for the May 25th feature states "it's the first link to human evolution." Then the narrator proclaims, "The link, this changes everything." The History Channel is airing "The Link" on Monday, May 25, at 9 PM ET. The History Channel website declares, "Missing link found!" and that "this groundbreaking discovery fills in a critical gap in human and primate evolution." One of the scientists calls it "a transitional fossil like Darwin was dreaming of" and "the one that will be pictured in all textbooks." History Channel is calling it a "revolutionary scientific find that will change everything." To see the History Channel website for yourself visit http://www.history.com/content/the-link.

As has already been reported, the fossil was announced with much fanfare. Google responded to the new 47-million year old fossil by working an image of the fossil into the logo of its search page. The discovery was presented with a press conference at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where researchers called the finding a "missing link." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke at the press conference. Fox News reported that "the small body represents a roughly 9-month-old female that probably looked a lot like modern lemurs. The researchers who studied the fossil, led by Jørn Hurum of the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum, nicknamed her 'Ida'." Experts are almost unanimous in their praise for the fossil's exceptional preservation.

Fox News further reported on "the authors of the scientific paper reporting the Ida finding in the journal PLoS ONE May 19 claim that some of Ida's features could redraw the evolutionary tree of life, and even suggest that Ida might belong to a family that is an early precursor of humans. Humans, apes and monkeys all belong to a group called anthropoids."

What the History Channel documentary no doubt seems to be ignoring is that highly respected evolutionist scientists have already come out and said that this discovery does not represent what the discoverers are claiming it represents at all. In fact, what it represents is science being turned into a media circus. No one denies and all are impressed with the amazing amount of the fossil that is still intact, but the "missing link" claim has already gotten very much criticism. In fact, the Associated Press reported that "experts not connected with the discovery...questioned the conclusions of Hurum and his colleagues about how closely it is related to ancestors of monkeys and humans."

"On the whole I think the evidence is less than convincing," said Chris Gilbert, a paleoanthropologist at Yale University. "They make an intriguing argument but I would definitely say that the consensus is not in favor of the hypothesis they're proposing."

"What does it tell us about human evolution that we didn't know? Precious little," said Stony Brook University paleoanthropologist John Fleagle. The AP quoted Fleagle as saying that the scientists' analysis provides only "a pretty weak link" between the new creature and higher primates, called anthropoids, that includes monkeys and man. "It doesn't really tell us much about anthropoid origins, quite frankly," Fleagle said.

On the discoverers claim in the paper that by examining the anatomy of adapids, these animals have something to do with the direct line of human ancestry and living monkeys and apes, paleontologist Richard Kay of Duke University says: "This claim is buttressed with almost no evidence. And they failed to cite a body of literature that's been going on since at least 1984 that presents evidence against their hypothesis."

"This fossil has been hailed as the eighth wonder of the world. Frankly, I've got 10 more in my basement," said Chris Beard, a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. He also disagreed with some of the outlandish claims researchers made during the press conference, such as the suggestion that Ida represents a "missing link" between early primates and humans. "It's not a missing link, it's not even a terribly close relative to monkeys, apes and humans, which is the point they're trying to make," Beard said. The AP report quoted Beard as saying, "I actually don't think it's terribly close to the common ancestral line of monkeys, apes and people. I would say it's about as far away as you can get from that line and still be a primate."

In fact, curator Chris Beard has already written an article in response to the hoopla surrounding Ida. He wrote in the New Scientist that Ida retaining "primitive features that commonly occurred among all early primates, such as simple incisors rather than a full-fledged toothcomb, indicates that Ida belongs somewhere closer to the base of the tree than living lemurs do. But this does not necessarily make Ida a close relative of anthropoids – the group of primates that includes monkeys, apes – and humans. In order to establish that connection, Ida would have to have anthropoid-like features that evolved after anthropoids split away from lemurs and other early primates. Here, alas, Ida fails miserably. So, Ida is not a 'missing link' – at least not between anthropoids and more primitive primates. Further study may reveal her to be a missing link between other species of Eocene adapiforms, but this hardly solidifies her status as the 'eighth wonder of the world.'" To read his full article visit http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17173-why-ida-fossil-is-not-the-missing-link.html

Live Science Editorial Director Robert Roy Britt said that "it can now be said the findings may well have been significantly overstated. We won't know for sure until further research is done. But if this event causes the public to distrust science and media, that distrust is well placed." To read the Live Science article for yourself visit http://www.livescience.com/culture/090520-ida-fossil-hype.html.

"The P.R. campaign on this fossil is I think more of a story than the fossil itself. It's a very beautiful fossil, but I didn't see anything in this paper that told me anything decisive that was new," said anthropologist Matt Cartmill of Duke University in North Carolina.

Yet the P.R. campaign appears to be going forward on the History Channel which is featuring this film with the discoverers of this fossil. Robert Roy Britt, the aforementioned Editorial Director of Live Science, said the disoverers with the help of the media were "struggling with the knots in their stomachs that suggested something just wasn't quite right. Maybe it was the appearance of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Ida's unveiling. Maybe it was the TV documentary planned around the finding. Or the book that's been written about it. Or the exclusive deal for yesterday's TV and Web coverage with one network. That much hype, and you wonder what they're hiding."

The response of many scientists declaring Ida's significance to have been overstated hardly got the press coverage that was awarded to the initial announcements that "the missing link" had been found. Now it appears the History Channel will present a documentary that amounts to nothing more than pure propaganda for that already widely criticized proposition. The History Channel feature will promote the view espoused by the discoverers of the fossil and will very likely not include the opinion of colleagues in the scientific community that have pointed out that this fossil's implications have been largely exaggerated. The media, along with the History Channel, should be giving the highly qualified scientists that through a sort of informal peer-review have deflated this story as much air time as the discoverers themselves.

Yet the History Channel and the mainstream media cannot be trusted to bring you the full story, especially when it comes to the issue of Darwinism. Instead they promote propaganda. Websites like this one exist to point that out.

New York's American Museum of Natural History will feature a replica cast in a new exhibit about mammals. And yet I wonder whether the museum will provide the balanced portrait that I have provided.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT. Stimulate debate and discussion, and let the truth be told.
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