Major News Outlet Repeatedly Ignores the Truth—Even When the Governor’s Office Sets the Record Straight

And it gets worse. The paper issues no correction or clarification (as of this date) when an investigation by the office of Gov. Andy Beshear (D) into the matter shows that the three attacks in the paper were wrong in the first place.

Now, you would think that a fair news outlet would allow us the opportunity to present what was uncovered by the governor’s staff and share that finding in a follow-up clarification or at least run an op-ed from us, showing that we have been vindicated. The paper’s readers who have seen the three inaccurate items against us should be aware of the actual outcome of the dispute.

But the retraction didn’t happen. The paper would neither print the second op-ed we submitted nor retract the thesis of its three hit pieces against the Ark.

The paper would neither print the second op-ed we submitted nor retract the thesis of its three hit pieces against the Ark.

Here is our op-ed the Louisville Courier Journal, the largest news source in our state, refused to print after constantly misrepresenting K9 safety training on the Ark grounds. Three different authors insisted that the training received by police officers was lacking and was overshadowed by Bible lessons and teaching about the Ark account in the Bible. At this date, the paper has still not acknowledged what the governor’s office has determined. The following is the real account, our op-ed, with findings by the Kentucky State Police, which the paper refuses to print.

Editor:

The Courier Journal has now printed three items (two of them op-eds) attacking and misrepresenting the Ark Encounter and the professional police K9 training hosted at the attraction. The third salvo was a bizarre one, and it came from a geologist who says he’s “terrified” by the training law enforcement officers received. Even Gov. Beshear’s office has investigated the claims presented in the three Courier Journal pieces and has refuted the paper’s conclusion that the K9 training was overshadowed by Bible instruction. (More about the governor’s office later.)

Just as a police officer must be careful not to arrive at conclusions before all evidence has been observed and collected, a reputable geologist or any scientist should follow the same forensic process. The case here with the geologist’s commentary shows a careless cherry-picking of evidence about what may have happened during the police safety training, and he declares, “The butler did it.”

Interestingly, we hold classes on forensic science at both the Ark and Creation Museum. Students are taught the process of observing and retrieving as much evidence as possible and then carefully arriving at a conclusion. But this geologist was not at the scene (the safety training course) and knows very little beyond what he has managed to cobble together—and he has come to a (wrong) conclusion. For one, he obviously never saw the full schedule and couldn’t begin to tell you how many hours of vital safety training were given.

As we shared with the Courier Journal earlier in an op-ed, attendees at the safety training were given the opportunity to walk through the Ark if they chose to do so. It was not a part of the safety training schedule. In addition, outside their training time, officers could attend optional Bible lessons before and after their training. This was known to officers before they signed up. Yes, this is a Christian attraction. Everyone knows that, yet there is an implied bait and switch according to the three Courier Journal pieces.

As we shared in our guest column, someone said grace during lunch. Beyond optional breaks to attend a Bible lesson and the opportunity of walking through the ship, officers received several hours of exceptional training every day. Even with all the information we shared in our column, the geologist in his rebuttal claimed we omitted vital facts in our op-ed. It’s a pity that this “man of science” resorted to ad hominem attacks, saying the Ark founders had violated the ninth commandment in telling lies about the safety training received at the Ark.

Over the years, we have been upfront (on the web and other places) that the Ark is a Christian themed attraction and that all guests, including those attending officer training or special conferences, would experience a Christian facility. We have been open about it. There’s no “gotcha” here as claimed by the columnist.

Nevertheless, this geologist thinks he uncovered something nefarious about the police K9 training. He does a Google search of the Ark’s very public website and picks and chooses comments from attendees to back his claims that something terrible and illegal (a so-called “separation of church and state” issue) is going on during the police safety training.

This geologist contacted the governor’s office with his accusations. One of Gov. Beshear’s staff members investigated the matter and wrote (May 22) to correct him. The letter indicated that a Kentucky State Patrol officer who attended was questioned by the governor’s office about the police training and confirmed to the governor that the optional teachings “were conducted during breaks and were entirely voluntary.” The geologist’s commentary took an even more bizarre turn when he suggested that an officer who attended the safety training will now treat drivers differently during traffic stops if it was believed they were not Christians (because of a bumper sticker or the driver having a foreign-sounding name, he wrote)! He calls it a “terrifying” prospect. The governor’s office also weighed in on this wild charge and waved it off, declaring that the KSP “strives to treat everyone equally on traffic stops . . . regardless of one’s religious affiliation.”

The geologist’s assertion that the amount of police safety training was diminished because of optional Bible lessons is preposterous. He obviously did not have the full schedule to know what really goes on during three days of training. If he had, he would not have made his false claims.

No, the butler didn’t do it. In fact, there was no crime.

Sincerely,

Mark Looy
CCO

Readers of the Courier Journal are still not aware of what really happened unless they chose to visit our website or follow us on social media. (As of today, the journal has not even printed our 200-word letter, a much shorter version than our op-ed above.) Such is the sad state of affairs with American journalism when the topic at hand involves biblical Christianity.