This statement really doesn’t answer most of the questions raised by the Expo report. Indeed, it spends about as much time criticizing Expo as providing specific factual information about FLI’s questioned conduct.
The approval of this grant seems bizarre enough that justification beyond the bare characterization of a positive impression is needed here. What was the grant proposal about? How did funding it further FLI’s mission? Why was it assessed positively?
What vetting of the grant proposal did FLI conduct before issuing the letter declaring that it had “approved a grant” to NDF? (I’m quoting from the September 7 letter published by Expo. FLI hasn’t repudiated that letter as false or misleading at the time it was written, so I’m going to take it at face value.). It does not seem responsible that one would “approve[]” a six-figure grant without having some idea about who the proposed grantee was and their ability to carry out the purposes of the grant. Nor does it seem reasonable that FLI would determine that making a grant to a proposed foundation associated with a far-right, anti-science, Holocaust-denying media outlet was an effective way to get “research, outreach and other important work in furtherance of FLI’s mission” done.
As far as the press statement’s attempt to mainstream the people associated with NDF, Expo quoted from a Holocaust-denial editorial by the lead editor of the media outlet (chair of NDF) and exhortations by another ND editor to vote for a neo-Nazi political party (as characterized by the Anti-Defamation League). NDF’s “board of directors consists of the senior editors of” ND, which means those editors stood by while ND published advocacy for a neo-Nazi political party. See also other comments on this thread.
Your brother told Expo that he did “not want to answer questions concerning whether he has been involved in contacts between Nya Dagbladet and FLI.” Are you in a position to state whether (and if so, how) he was involved in any way with the grant, with NDF, or with any contact between the prospective grantees and FLI? If there was involvement, can you state whether you and your wife recused yourself from any consideration of the grant proposal due to an involvement of an immediate family member?
What information did FLI find—and not know earlier—that caused it to rescind the grant “approv[al]”? Why was this information not found earlier?
Do you want to comment on your response to Expo asserting that FLI had not “approved grants to any person or organization in Scandinavia”? Unless there is more context, that statement isn’t consistent with the September 7 letter or the media statement above. Especially when combined with a statement suggesting that Expo had no reasonable factual basis for having such a belief: “Where did you get this incorrect information about Future of Life Institute?”
Basically, I am finding it hard to find a way in which none of the following three following statements are true: (1) FLI approved a six-figure grant to NDF without looking to see what kind of work the proposed grantees did; (2) FLI was on notice of their extremist views and approved the grant anyway; or (3) FLI made a false or misleading statement about approving the grant when it knew or should have known that statement would be relied on by third parties. If FLI had not yet considered whether NDF was an appropriate grantee (but was planning to do so later), it was simply not appropriate to characterize this as an approved grant. (In contrast, I think it was OK that the letter did not list certain legally-required and technical preconditions.) One problem with issuing a vague response is that it leaves the reader to determine which of these three statements is true. I think all are problematic, but some more so than others.
The final paragraph of the statement is the most alarming. The statements that you will “continue to engage the broadest sample of humankind” and make “no apologies for engaging with many people across the immensely diverse political spectrum” have been made in the specific context of criticism for approving a grant to an organization whose board is significantly linked to Holocaust denial (and at the very least extremely tolerant of neo-Nazism). If you did not intend to include such organizations in your statements of non-apology and future intent, you really should say so and define the bounds of who FLI is willing to work with.
This statement really doesn’t answer most of the questions raised by the Expo report. Indeed, it spends about as much time criticizing Expo as providing specific factual information about FLI’s questioned conduct.
The approval of this grant seems bizarre enough that justification beyond the bare characterization of a positive impression is needed here. What was the grant proposal about? How did funding it further FLI’s mission? Why was it assessed positively?
What vetting of the grant proposal did FLI conduct before issuing the letter declaring that it had “approved a grant” to NDF? (I’m quoting from the September 7 letter published by Expo. FLI hasn’t repudiated that letter as false or misleading at the time it was written, so I’m going to take it at face value.). It does not seem responsible that one would “approve[]” a six-figure grant without having some idea about who the proposed grantee was and their ability to carry out the purposes of the grant. Nor does it seem reasonable that FLI would determine that making a grant to a proposed foundation associated with a far-right, anti-science, Holocaust-denying media outlet was an effective way to get “research, outreach and other important work in furtherance of FLI’s mission” done.
As far as the press statement’s attempt to mainstream the people associated with NDF, Expo quoted from a Holocaust-denial editorial by the lead editor of the media outlet (chair of NDF) and exhortations by another ND editor to vote for a neo-Nazi political party (as characterized by the Anti-Defamation League). NDF’s “board of directors consists of the senior editors of” ND, which means those editors stood by while ND published advocacy for a neo-Nazi political party. See also other comments on this thread.
Your brother told Expo that he did “not want to answer questions concerning whether he has been involved in contacts between Nya Dagbladet and FLI.” Are you in a position to state whether (and if so, how) he was involved in any way with the grant, with NDF, or with any contact between the prospective grantees and FLI? If there was involvement, can you state whether you and your wife recused yourself from any consideration of the grant proposal due to an involvement of an immediate family member?
What information did FLI find—and not know earlier—that caused it to rescind the grant “approv[al]”? Why was this information not found earlier?
Do you want to comment on your response to Expo asserting that FLI had not “approved grants to any person or organization in Scandinavia”? Unless there is more context, that statement isn’t consistent with the September 7 letter or the media statement above. Especially when combined with a statement suggesting that Expo had no reasonable factual basis for having such a belief: “Where did you get this incorrect information about Future of Life Institute?”
Basically, I am finding it hard to find a way in which none of the following three following statements are true: (1) FLI approved a six-figure grant to NDF without looking to see what kind of work the proposed grantees did; (2) FLI was on notice of their extremist views and approved the grant anyway; or (3) FLI made a false or misleading statement about approving the grant when it knew or should have known that statement would be relied on by third parties. If FLI had not yet considered whether NDF was an appropriate grantee (but was planning to do so later), it was simply not appropriate to characterize this as an approved grant. (In contrast, I think it was OK that the letter did not list certain legally-required and technical preconditions.) One problem with issuing a vague response is that it leaves the reader to determine which of these three statements is true. I think all are problematic, but some more so than others.
The final paragraph of the statement is the most alarming. The statements that you will “continue to engage the broadest sample of humankind” and make “no apologies for engaging with many people across the immensely diverse political spectrum” have been made in the specific context of criticism for approving a grant to an organization whose board is significantly linked to Holocaust denial (and at the very least extremely tolerant of neo-Nazism). If you did not intend to include such organizations in your statements of non-apology and future intent, you really should say so and define the bounds of who FLI is willing to work with.