One reader complained that I didn't clearly explain the nature of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is running ads slamming environmental alarmists. He said CEI was not simply a "libertarian" group but was essentially a front group for hire -- supported significantly by ExxonMobil and its foundation. I explained that the newsroom "tyranny of space" -- in which all of the day's news competes for limited column inches -- in this case made it impossible to include anything more than a shorthand descriptor for the group. My view was that the advertisements spoke for themselves, with anyone with a modicum of understanding of the issue being able to form an opinion on them.
Another reader complained that I closed the story with a quote from Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, who defended Al Gore's mission and methods.
I failed to mention that Mr. Gore is on the board of the nonprofit group. Here it was the newsroom tyranny of time that got in my way. I did not have time to sift for potential conflicts or connections between Mr. Gore and Mr. Lash. My bad (as my teenager would say).
So there you have it -- once again the journalist under attack from both ends of the spectrum, a position that hopefully means I've come reasonably close to doing my job, warts and all.
More on these issues can be found in my chapter in the National Association of Science Writers Field Guide for Science Writers.
Andy Revkin has been an environment reporter for The New York Times since 1995. Revkin has traveled to the Artic three times, and he was the first New York Times reporter to file stories and images from the North Pole. He is the author of the new book THE NORTH POLE WAS HERE: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World
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Comments: 3
The human heart can go the length of God,
Dark and cold we may be, but this is no winter now.
The frozen misery of centuries cracks, breaks, begins to move,
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring,
Thank God our time is now,
When wrong comes up to meet us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take,
the greatest stride of soul man ever took.
Affairs are now soul size,
The enterprise is exploration into God,
But where are you making for,
It takes so many thousand years to wake,
but will you wake, for pity's sake......
Christopher Fry
This concludes " The Global Brain" by Peter Russell circa 1980s
I recieve nothing from any inclusion it is my views alone.
Happy Unbirthday to you and welcome to the party.
I checked the site send an email and it was returned. I guess they did not like my asking to mind their own business and let the scientist do their job.