Open scientific debate or closed minds

Channel 4 are to screen a series of programmes Race: Science's Last Taboo, the first of which be "Race and Intelligence" in which Rageh Omaar questions scientists about Nobel Prize winner James Watson's claims that black people are less intelligent than other races. The Channel 4 blurb for this programme runs (my emphasis):

"In 2007, Nobel Prize winning US scientist James Watson was quoted referring to research suggesting that black people were less intelligent than other races. His comments caused a storm of controversy, Watson was condemned.

Although he apologised for the offence he caused, his public engagements were cancelled and he left his British speaking tour in disgrace.

Meanwhile, right wing websites hailed him as the new Galileo - a martyr to political correctness that was concealing the fact that there is indeed evidence that shows different races score differently in IQ tests. But are the tests biased? Is race really a scientific category at all?

In this documentary, part of the season Race: Science's Last Taboo, Rageh Omaar sets out to find out the truth, meeting scientists who believe the research supports the view that races can be differentiated as well as those who vehemently oppose this view. By daring to ask the difficult questions, Omaar is able to explode the myths about race and IQ and reveal what he thinks are important lessons for society."

This could have been an interesting impartial examination of the evidence for and against the claims of James Watson and others but somehow I think the programme's collective mind was made up before the programme was made as a Channel 4 spokesperson is quoted as saying that (my emphasis):

"This new season of programmes sets out to explode some of the myths about race and science and to cast light on the history and consequences of scientific racism.

The Season debunks the myths about science and race – science has been misused to legitimise racist beliefs and practices – these programmes are the antidote to that.

Season roundly dismisses the ideas: that race is a predictor of intelligence; that racial purity has scientific benefits and that any one race is superior to another."

So that's settled then. I wonder how Channel 4 stand on the accepted fact that Black athletes are naturally better runners than White athletes; is that racist science as well?