The Expelled Fiasco

Heard of Ben Stein's movie expelled? You know, the new movie coming out about how "big science" is not allowing novel ideas into the classroom narrated by some nasally, drawling charlatan? I wrote about the producer's employing some insidious methods in order to extort interviews with certain people in October. Apparently, these producers are even more inept than I imagined.

In order to gain support for their movie, they have been allowing people to go to early screenings of the movie as long as they reserve seats ahead of time. The producers, of course, have been mainly pandering to their targeted audience: credulous fundamentalist Christians. PZ Myers, a scientist who was illicitly interviewed, attempted to attend the March 21st screening of the movie along with his family and some friends; all of whom he had reserved seats for. Guess what happened? He got expelled. From Expelled. Now that I have smashed your face with the hypocrisy mallet, get ready for the irony mallet. PZ's guests were allowed in; among them: Richard Dawkins. While they expelled PZ, they entirely missed the most famous atheist and proponent of evolution alive.

Here is PZ's recollection of why he was kicked out:

I went to attend a screening of the creationist propaganda movie, Expelled, a few minutes ago. Well, I tried … but I was Expelled! It was kind of weird — I was standing in line, hadn't even gotten to the point where I had to sign in and show ID, and a policeman pulled me out of line and told me I could not go in. I asked why, of course, and he said that a producer of the film had specifically instructed him that I was not to be allowed to attend. The officer also told me that if I tried to go in, I would be arrested. I assured him that I wasn't going to cause any trouble.

I went back to my family and talked with them for a while, and then the officer came back with a theater manager, and I was told that not only wasn't I allowed in, but I had to leave the premises immediately. Like right that instant.

I complied.

In another post he gave more details:

This was a private screening with no admission charge, and you had to reserve seats ahead of time; you also had to sign a promise that you wouldn't record the movie while you were there, and they were checking ID. Everyone in my family reserved seats under our own names, myself included. There was no attempt to "sneak in", although apparently the producer, Mark Mathis, accused me of doing so in the Q&A afterwards (Mathis, of course, is a contemptible liar). We followed the procedures they set up, every step of the way, and were completely above board in all our dealings.

Mark Mathis was there at the screening, and apparently spotted me and gave instructions to the guard to throw me out. I asked the guard why I was being evicted, and he explained directly that the producer had given him that instruction.

They were well within their rights to exclude anyone. When I was told I would not be allowed in and threatened with arrest, I told the security guard that I would not cause any trouble. I stopped to talk with my family when they came over with a theater manager to evict me; again, I left peacefully. Apparently, the guards were talking about carrying out further measures when they saw me standing outside the theater, and speculated that I was going to harass other attendees. This was not true; I'd just had to leave my friends and family behind, and all I really wanted to do was tell them where I'd be. The last thing I wanted to do was spend two hours hanging around a movie theater.

Anyway, anyone reputable who has reviewed this movie has stressed that the movie is vapid. This movie is probably going to be damaging to your intellect, so anyone who cares about that should probably skip this movie. You can read Dawkins' review of the movie here.