About a year ago Rodney Meldrum produced a DVD called "The Lost Civilizations of North America". In the DVD he includes interviews with a number of scientists to add credibility to his Heartland model.

One of the scientists he interviewed is so annoyed about the way their words were twisted that she just published a stinging criticism of the DVD and its producers.

....

"...the producers of the DVD, Barry McLerran and Rick Stout, interviewed researchers with expertise on North American archeology...at length. Then they skillfully edited the interviews to make it appear that we agreed with the film’s thesis: that various artifacts shown in the film gave evidence supporting the Mormon story. The producers sent the scholars a rough version of the film in March 2010, provoking immediate e-mail demands for rectification of this misrepresentation. Two of the younger scholars contacted legal counsel at their universities about possible lawsuits, should the film be released with distortions of their interviews.

What especially disturbed the scholars was that the connection to the Mormon legend had not been disclosed; the producers had said the film would be about appreciating First Nations’ achievements."

"The Lost Civilizations of North America DVD can be ignored since it misrepresents reputable interpretations of Midwest archaeological data—except, perhaps, by those interested in the persistence of pseudoarcheological claims about the cultures and peoples of North America before European colonization."

......


Meldrum is exposed as a complete fraud. He arranges numerous interviews with scientists on the pretense that he is celebrating the achievements of Native Americans, then slices and dices their words to advance his money making apologetics.


http://reports.ncse.com/index.php/rncse/article/view/23/22



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2011 08:04PM by Simon in Oz.

It's good to see that these scientists aren't taking the misrepresentations lying down. I wish every scientist, historian and scholar that Mormon apologists ABUSE in this way would take such action.

Thanks for the update!

Why would he do that? I mean, it's so easy to (1) tick off the authentic scientists and (2) totally wipe out any credibility he may start out with.

Does he purposely twist things to get a specific outcome he is after, is it Lying for the Lord, or is it just general cluelessness about science, or ???

I'm glad this scientist spoke up. Misrepresenting yourself as to the purpose of an interview you're conducting is seriously unethical. (How did he think he could get away with that?)

Nightingale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why would he do that? I mean, it's so easy to (1)
> tick off the authentic scientists and (2) totally
> wipe out any credibility he may start out with.
>
> Does he purposely twist things to get a specific
> outcome he is after, is it Lying for the Lord, or
> is it just general cluelessness about science, or
> ???
>
> I'm glad this scientist spoke up. Misrepresenting
> yourself as to the purpose of an interview you're
> conducting is seriously unethical. (How did he
> think he could get away with that?)

How? He prayed about it and got a good feeling. ;o))

I guess he has been twisting the printed words of scientists for so long that he thinks he can get away with twisting anything they say. I guess he was wrong.

What a sleazy thing to do! Sleazy, sleazy, sleazy. That's the word that comes to mind for me these days when I think about mormonism and this story is one of the many reasons why.

It certainly took awhile for the scientists and their lawyers to get their act together for the smack down.

I was really glad to see this follow-up. Meldrum deserves this and more. I just wish they could have stopped him before he sold tickets to auditoriums full of people in the morridor.

Here's the text of an email I received in reply to a heads-up I sent to Ken Feder in January of 2010:

Dear [OnceMore]:

Thanks very much for alerting me to this. I requested of the producers a copy of the dvd as soon as it was ready for distribution and apparently they have not afforded me that courtesy.

As I have not seen it, I cannot comment on how they edited my interview. My entire focus was on the remarkable culture produced by the indigenous people of North America. I made every effort in my wording to make sure that what I said could not be twisted, but perhaps in this I was naïve. As a result of your email, I intend to contact the producers and remind them of their promise to supply me with a copy.

Thanks again. I ‘ll let you know my reaction when I receive a copy of the show.

Ken Feder
Anthropology
-----------
I wrote to some of the other scientists at the same time. I'm sure I'm not the only person who alerted them.

My letters to the scientists stated the obvious, and also included excerpts from the promotional text, excerpts that revealed the blatantly unscientific or pseudoscientific nature of the documentary.

--------
Text from OnceMore:
It looks to me like your good name as a scholar is being abused by the filmmakers of "The Lost Civilization of North America." I wonder if perhaps you did not realize what the filmmakers had in mind when they interviewed you. I worry too about the editing, which from the example of the trailer alone, looks to be unethical. You can view the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF1O4NsCKOg.
[followed by excerpts from The FIRM Foundation's propaganda]

Meldrum is completely clueless. He is a cut and paste half wit. He thinks that random, out of context quotes from people who totally disagree with him, prove his theories. He is totally clueless about the topics he tries to address.

I kind of think that most people scoff inside when they first hear or read the Morg's claim that American Indians are related to Jews who migrated to the America's thousands of years ago.

Yea Right.

My hunch is most people know that the Native American ancestors came over the land bridge from Asia onto the North American continent thousands of years ago.

The TBM's who buy the apologists line are simply living in denial for a while. The cracks start appearing more frequently every year.

The arguments FARMS puts out are clearly absurd, and more brainwashed Mormon cult members come to the devastating but exhilarating conclusion daily. Each month more find out the truth the Mormon church has been carefully hiding all these years.

The recent press on the BoM musical on Broadway is another headache and embarrassment for the LDS leadership. I believe it is only going to get worse.

Excellent find on the Alice Kehoe article, Simon...

Somebody posted a link to the story in the Columbus Dispatch, and Ohio Historical Society archaeologist Brad Lepper posted on his blog about how many scientists--Alice Kehoe among them--were up in arms over how grossly their views were misrepresented.

In fact, I watched that particular episode of Beck (the only time I have watched his show) for precisely that reason...

Here's the original newspaper article...

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/12/29/dvd-stirs-up-archaeological-spat.html

And Lepper's blog with a number of comments, one including a link to RFM, and some discussion with an individual about the authenticity of the Newark Holy Stones, The Bat Creek Stone, and The Michigan Relics, all of which are demonstrable frauds.

http://ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com/2010/12/commentary-on-lost-civilizations-of.html

As one who's spent considerable time debunking "diffusionist" claims, I enjoyed "Brandon's" sparring with Lepper, who wasn't budging an inch...

>Contrary to your claim, the Newark Holy Stones have been proven to be fraudulent. The Bat Creek Stone and Michigan Relics, also featured in the documentary, have been proven to be fraudulent. Even if they had not been proven to be frauds, the burden of proof would be on those who would ask us to accept them as authentic relics of the ancient past. The evidence presented in the documentary (or anywhere else for that matter) is neither accurate nor persuasive. Wanting to believe that they are real does not make them real.

He wants archaeologists to back off when their findings help critics of a church. Of course. What an idiot.