Dan Rather ‘Dismayed’ by Jon Stewart’s Comments About Science to Colbert: ‘Dangerous’ Line of Thinking
Dan Rather criticized Jon Stewart for his comments about science during a lengthy bit on The Late Show about the covid lab leak theory.
Stewart was Stephen Colbert’s big guest for his first show back with a studio audience, and he went on a tear backing the lab leak theory and saying things like, “I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science.”
Rather wrote in his Steady piece on Sunday, “It is true that, early in the pandemic, many if not most scientists dismissed the notion that the virus leaked from a lab. A year and half later, the origins of the virus remain a mystery and China has been far from forthcoming — to say the least — about what they know, and did. It is also true that more scientists are considering the lab theory as worthy of examination, although there is no specific evidence to date that it is the source.”
He went on to say that Stewart’s broader comments about scientists are a “dangerous” line of thinking:
On The Late Show, Stewart didn’t leave his criticism of science and scientists at COVID and lab leaks. He extrapolated. “Can I say this about scientists?” he added. “I love them and they do such good work but they are going to kill us all.” Let that sink in. Scientists are going to “kill us all?” And he finished up by predicting how the world would end. “The last words man utters are somewhere in a lab a guy goes, ‘Huhuh! It worked.’”
I cannot overemphasize how dangerous this line of thinking is. It is true that some scientists have done some bad things in the name of research — such as the Tuskegee experiments. Scientists have been wrong. Science and technology have been tools that supported colonialism and oppression. Science does not release us from our moral responsibilities. All of this is the case because science is a human endeavor and scientists are human, subject to the same frailties and base instincts as any member of our species. But science is also a way of thinking, where we challenge our own dogmas and beliefs, where we change our minds and approach when the data show we were wrong.
When Rather tweeted out his post he said he was “dismayed” to hear Stewart’s comments when “the very ideals of science are under attack”:
Scientists, and the very ideals of science, are under attack on many fronts. This is dangerous and shortsighted. So I was dismayed to hear Jon Stewart add to the “questioning” when he went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week. My thoughts here.https://t.co/p38C7zXvEX
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) June 20, 2021
