— Updated: Story about Yecke in the St. Petersburg Times. —
The following press release has been sent out to Florida media:
Internet Company Tries to Sanitize Old Information about Yecke
Dr. Cheri Pierson Yecke, K-12 chancellor for Florida’s Department of Education, has apparently hired a company called ReputationDefender to search the Internet for information about her and, on her behalf, challenge items she disputes. Florida Citizens for Science member Dr. Wesley Elsberry recently received an e-mail from the organization asking him to remove or modify a quote he has on his personal website about Yecke. The quote was taken from a Minnesota newspaper that reported Yecke specifically had included a go-ahead to schools in that state to incorporate “intelligent design†into science benchmarks in 2003. Yecke was the Minnesota Commissioner of Education at that time.
The quote a ReputationDefender representative says Yecke disputes is: “Yecke had explained in her advance publicity for the hearings that schools could include the concept of “intelligent design†in teaching how the world came to be.â€
Elsberry reports that the ReputationDefender representative, “Dave S.â€, admits Yecke has declined to provide the documents that would demonstrate the truth – or falsity – of her complaint. Elsberry also says that the reporter who wrote the original newspaper story has never received any complaint from Yecke concerning the accuracy of his 3-year-old article.
During her time in Minnesota, Yecke was entangled in a controversy over the teaching of evolution and supposed alternative theories in public schools when the state was revamping science standards.
Elsberry is a wildlife biologist who had worked for the National Center for Science Education, and is currently on a one-year leave of absence to be a Visiting Research Associate in the Lyman Briggs School of Science, Michigan State University. Elsberry had helped found Florida Citizens for Science and is still an active member and advisor.
The original newspaper article is at:
http://www.ecm-inc.com/news/princeton/2003/October/9standards.html
Elsberry’s web page containing the disputed quote is at:
http://austringer.net/wp/?p=141
I note that the original article is blocked on the internet archive. ReputationDefender may have overlooked the direct availability of the original on the web. It’s probably worth capturing anything that’s at risk of being censored.
Les Lane said,
“I note that the original article is blocked on the internet archive. ReputationDefender may have overlooked the direct availability of the original on the web. It’s probably worth capturing anything that’s at risk of being censored.”
I found the original newspaper article where the above link said it would be.
The only censorship going on here is on Wesley Elsberry’s blogs Austringer and Panda’s Thumb. He is censoring comments that dispute his charge that Yecke misrepresented the No Child Left Behind Act and the Santorum Amendment.
Readers should be aware that Larry Fafarman has been banned from posting at the Austringer and Panda’s Thumb for inappropriate behavior. The terms of his banishment include deletion of any comments left by him, regardless of comment. Furthermore, the comments Larry left did not, in fact, dispute alleged charges that Yecke misrepresented NCLB, but rather stated agreement with the actual stance held by a state rep quoted by Wes, that the Santorum Amendment was not actually part of the law and thus failure to implement it could not be punished by witholding funding. Unfortunately, Larry seems to have reversed the positions of the actors in this little drama due to his lack of knowledge of how the Federal government can impose its will on the states by refusing to fund states that don’t follow it’s laws.
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