The "awesome PR machine"

A skeptical ornithologist referred to it as "the awesome PR machine".

The PR is quite impressive--you've got Cornell team members making large numbers of personal appearances; they're also on TV and radio. You've got "The Grail Bird", you've got web sites, you've got fawning articles. You've also got press releases and tour hype. Throughout it all, a drumbeat message is "the Ivory-bill rediscovery is dead solid confirmed".

The public may be largely unaware that beneath the surface, there is a raging scientific debate. Because people desperately want to "believe", there is an undeniable stigma attached to expressions of skepticism, and because of that stigma, almost all skeptics have been publicly silent.

Right now, what does the public see that balances the "believer" PR machine? Not much. No TV, no radio, no books, no press releases, no personal appearances. You've got some skeptical comments in a few articles, you've got some skepticism on the internet, and that's about it.

Overall, the public perception on the "rediscovery" is still heavily influenced by emotion and PR, and lightly influenced by facts and logic. Over the next year, I think that facts and logic will begin to prevail.