This case illustrated the problem of [[fake news]], as the [[atheist]], bigoted reporter [[H.L. Mencken]] distorted what happened at the trial and misled the world about it. A review of the transcript reveals that [[William Jennings Bryan]] got the better of [[Clarence Darrow]], and yet Mencken reported the opposite in an extreme manner. Indeed, Darrow himself gave up and asked the jury to find his client John Scopes guilty, so that the cowardly Darrow could renege on his promise to take the witness stand himself in exchange for cross-examining Bryan.
Uncommondescent.com declared: "It is a little known fact that [[William Jennings Bryan]] agreed to be interrogated by [[Clarence Darrow]] only if Bryan could in turn interrogate Darrow 's views of [[evolution]]. Darrow agreed, but then right after interrogating Bryan [, [Darrow] directed the judge to find Scopes guilty, thereby closing the evidence and thus preventing Bryan from interrogating Darrow."<ref>http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/the-vise-strategy-squeezing-the-truth-out-of-darwinists/</ref> Generally speaking, [[Atheism and Debate|leading evolutionists generally no longer debate creation scientists]] as the evolutionists tend to lose the debates.<ref>https://www.icr.org/article/811/</ref>
The trial gained notoriety after it was dramatized in a grossly false manner for both stage (1955) and screen (1960), bizarrely entitled ''[[Inherit the Wind]]''. Both of these false dramatizations were promoted to try to smear [[Christianity]].<ref>"'Inherit the Wind' relentlessly distorts what happened in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925."[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/2/story_226_1.html]</ref><ref>As recently as April 17, 2007, the ''Village Voice'' endorsed a new Broadway rendition of ''Inherit the Wind'' as "a dramatization of the 1925 [Scopes] trial."[http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0716,feingold,76394,11.html]</ref> In the real trial Bryan made a fool of Darrow, not vice-versa, as demonstrated by the publicly available transcript that includes notations of laughter by the gallery, as quoted below.<ref>https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111scopes.html</ref>
The impetus for the Scopes trial began in a meeting among town leaders at a drugstore in Dayton, Tennessee, in response to a newspaper advertisement placed by the American Civil Liberties Union ([[ACLU]]) offering to provide legal services to anyone willing to be prosecuted under the Butler Act.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}, {{hnb|Linder|2002}}. See also {{hnb|Coulter|2006}}</ref> Town leaders agreed that a trial would provide publicity to the town,<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}</ref> whose population had dwindled to 1,800.<ref>{{hnb|Linder|2002}}</ref> The town leaders found a willing defendant in John Scopes, a gym teacher and football coach who also substituted (sometimes as a biology teacher), though Scopes could not recall ever teaching evolution.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}. See also {{hnb|Coulter|2006}}</ref> John Scopes told the town leaders, "If you can prove that I've taught evolution and that I can qualify as a defendant, then I'll be willing to stand trial."
[[Fundamentalism|Fundamentalists ]] took up the challenge, led by theologian [[William Bell Riley]], who signed up Bryan to assist the local county prosecutor. The national media rushed to Dayton.
== Grand Jury ==
Racing other Tennessee towns, Judge John T. Raulston accelerated the convening of the grand jury and "...all but instructed the grand jury to indict Scopes, despite the meager evidence against him and the widely reported stories questioning whether the willing defendant had ever taught evolution in the classroom."<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=108}}</ref> He was indicted on May 25, after three students testified against Scopes at the Grand Jury, at Scopes' behest.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=89, 107}}</ref>
== The Trial ==
:Darrow--Or ever thought of it?
:Bryan--I have been too busy on thinks things that I thought were of more importance than that.
A later exchange ended, once again, with the audience laughing: