Ethics

The DI's Shameless Fundraising Tactics

By Ed Brayton

The desperation of the Discovery Institute is clearly on display in a fundraising appeal they've sent out seeking to exploit the suicide of a college student to get people to send them money. Cheryl Shepherd-Adams has the fundraising letter, which is based on the story from a few weeks ago about Jesse Kilgore killing himself and his parents and the right wing media blaming it on having read a Richard Dawkins book.

This isn't the first time they've tried to exploit this guy's suicide for their own purposes. Anika Smith already wrote an idiotic post on the DI blog declaring that Kilgore's suicide shows "the Consequences of Teaching One Side of Evolution." After all, this kid was raised a creationist; he already got the other side. But it's even more shameless to try and raise money off his death. Here's how the letter begins:

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on December 24, 2008 (boomark / email).