Yeah, no, this story is not overall plausible and I would bet at better than 50-50 odds that there’s a major misrepresentation here regarding what happened. Option 1 is that a grant was approved pending due diligence, then pulled during the due diligence process. That would be mildly embarrassing, and would probably imply a grant evaluator somewhere didn’t do their job, but it wouldn’t be the scandal that this purports to be. Option 2 is that the letter of intent is an outright forgery.
As a Swede who is somewhat familiar with the publication Expo, I would maybe put the risk of forgery of that document at <5%. They are specifically known for their digging journalism, and I would be very surprised if they screwed up something basic like that.
Also, wouldn’t it be extremely strange behavior from FLI if that document actually was a forgery? Would be the go-to defense rather than what they are doing now.
Option 1 is that a grant was approved pending due diligence, then pulled during the due diligence process. That would be mildly embarrassing, and would probably imply a grant evaluator somewhere didn’t do their job
I think this would be a lot more than “mildly embarassing”. It’s an effective altruismorganisation. They should not have had to wait for the “due diligence” phase to understand why donating a hundred grand to a far-right newspaper is not an effective cause.
Either someone is approving grants (and telling the grantees they have funding) without so much as doing a cursory google search on the grantees, or someone knew it was a nazi newspaper and still thought it was a worthy effective cause. It really doesn’t help the case that Tegmarcks brother apparently wrote stories for the newspaper in question, so he at least could be expected to know what it is.
If the letter is genuine (and they have never denied that it is), then someone at FLI is either grossly incompetent or malicious. They need to address this ASAP.
At the time of my writing this comment, the parent was at 25 karma and −31 agreement karma.
Seeing as Jim was absolutely correct, I think that the people who dismissed them out of hand should reflect on what manner of reasoning led them to do so.
EDIT: posted this before I saw that Ic had already made the same point.
Yeah, no, this story is not overall plausible and I would bet at better than 50-50 odds that there’s a major misrepresentation here regarding what happened. Option 1 is that a grant was approved pending due diligence, then pulled during the due diligence process. That would be mildly embarrassing, and would probably imply a grant evaluator somewhere didn’t do their job, but it wouldn’t be the scandal that this purports to be. Option 2 is that the letter of intent is an outright forgery.
As a Swede who is somewhat familiar with the publication Expo, I would maybe put the risk of forgery of that document at <5%. They are specifically known for their digging journalism, and I would be very surprised if they screwed up something basic like that.
Also, wouldn’t it be extremely strange behavior from FLI if that document actually was a forgery? Would be the go-to defense rather than what they are doing now.
This comment turned out to be entirely correct.
Yep, seems right. I guess I am glad the comment itself didn’t get downvoted, but all the people who disagree-voted it sure should do some updating.
I think this would be a lot more than “mildly embarassing”. It’s an effective altruism organisation. They should not have had to wait for the “due diligence” phase to understand why donating a hundred grand to a far-right newspaper is not an effective cause.
Either someone is approving grants (and telling the grantees they have funding) without so much as doing a cursory google search on the grantees, or someone knew it was a nazi newspaper and still thought it was a worthy effective cause. It really doesn’t help the case that Tegmarcks brother apparently wrote stories for the newspaper in question, so he at least could be expected to know what it is.
If the letter is genuine (and they have never denied that it is), then someone at FLI is either grossly incompetent or malicious. They need to address this ASAP.
At the time of my writing this comment, the parent was at 25 karma and −31 agreement karma.
Seeing as Jim was absolutely correct, I think that the people who dismissed them out of hand should reflect on what manner of reasoning led them to do so.
EDIT: posted this before I saw that Ic had already made the same point.