Well, it might just be worth considering, purely hypothetically, that perhaps, just perhaps, Dawkins made a statement that might potentially indicate that he had the mindset of an overly pedantic, out of touch, presumptuous buffoon. And in this case, it really would not matter whether or not the journalist had an axe to grind with him and used this particular statement to lead in to a full-blown attack on Dawkins. Whether or not a person is being wise or foolish when they choose to criticise fairy stories on the basis of their rationality and logic is a matter that should perhaps be judged separately from whether someone else has a problem with that person. I think perhaps it might be worth researching why myth and fantasy exist and are still an important component of human consciousness.
I didn't realise that it was wise to judge people on hypothetical opinions of what they might have meant over depending on a biased article that self-contradicts his quotes with the journalist's opinion.
Of course, I think he does believe that the general use of fantasy and myth is negative, if it encourages people to not be critical with what they read.
Kind of like people should be with the article. The article is a knee-jerk reaction to an overstatement made by the journalist to him expanding on the concept that fantasy and encouraging myth causes people to be non-critical of myths that they would act on. Not exactly a stretch by any means, yet he measures his words carefully because he doesn't actually know. You know, a reasoned response.
I don't think it relates strongly, personally. But I have no valid reason to disagree or agree. If there is an effect, there is an effect... but given that most of humanity is non-critical no matter what, it seems silly to think that additional reading, no matter what the topic, would be the root cause. IOW, it's people inability to be critical (such as mentioned earlier, like Dawkin's view of religion and myth) period, and not surprisingly, those people can read. But at the same time, I fail to see how encouraging people to read 'myth' simply couldn't lead to people acting out based on myth.