Ida: The David Attenborough Hoax

By Malgwyn | September 15, 2009

I remember watching David Attenborough’s BBC1 “Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link,” back in May. As one who has enjoyed Attenborough’s nature programmes I wondered then would it do his ‘street cred’ any good to get involved in the Origin’s debate this way? True, he is a convinced evolutionist and has no time for the opposing Intelligent Design theory of origins, but in that programme I found him, and the BBC, so exposed in something that was for me a real hoax - except that Attenborough really believed what he was saying when science journals such as New Scientist, Lay Science  and Live Science - were saying, ‘Ida was definitely not a missing link!’ And while it was quickly recognised as hype  Sir David Attenborough steamed ahead - presumably on his reputation as the world’s leading naturalist - 2007 recipient of the Peter Scott Memorial Ward - convincing the public that this is another and the most important link in the evolutionary chain that proves evolution to be a fact!
Of course, as with so many previous ruses this ‘fact’ too has come unstuck. The Ida hype was really no more than a publicity stunt! It was recognised back in May as a publicity stunt - and is now proved to be a publicity stunt! Oh Sir David, why did you? Lifebyte tells us the much-hyped missing link is now being quietly dropped! How quiet will it be? Link Sir David Attenborough’s name with Ida and just Google.

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