|5) Was nepotism involved? In particular, would FLI’s president’s brother have profited in any way had the grant been awarded?
|No. He published some articles in the newspaper, but the understanding from the very beginning was that this was pro-bono, and he was never paid and never planned to get paid by the newspaper of the foundation. The grant proposal requested no funds for him. He is a journalist with many years of experience working for Swedish public radio and television, and runs his own free and non-commercial podcast. The newspaper linked some of his episodes, but this has nothing to do with FLI, and it provided no ad revenue since he runs no ads. He was shocked by the recent revelations of extremism and plans no further association with the newspaper.
I think you should list the purely contextual information (that an FLI executive’s sibling has written articles for the newspaper etc) before the responsive information (that this did not influence the decision etc).
Also, definitely state the responsive information as two parts:
-Stuff that FLI knows, stated as fact
-”We reached out to [sibling], and he communicated the following”
FLI as an institution does not (I assume) accept representations by its executives’ family members as verified fact or allow them editorial influence. Separating the facts that FLI knows from the facts represented to FLI by the sibling emphasizes this.
It makes complete sense for Tegmark to defend & believe his brother in personal statements, and for FLI to give a relative the opportunity to communicate something in a circumstance like this.
However FLI isn’t Tegmark. FLI’s statements about his brother should be objective and based on information that can be verified by another executive. The statements should be made as if there’s a small chance it’s later discovered that his brother is lying about his politics or finances, because FLI should not make statements about Tegmark’s brother based on his personal judgement.
FAQ number 5) reads oddly.
|5) Was nepotism involved? In particular, would FLI’s president’s brother have profited in any way had the grant been awarded?
|No. He published some articles in the newspaper, but the understanding from the very beginning was that this was pro-bono, and he was never paid and never planned to get paid by the newspaper of the foundation. The grant proposal requested no funds for him. He is a journalist with many years of experience working for Swedish public radio and television, and runs his own free and non-commercial podcast. The newspaper linked some of his episodes, but this has nothing to do with FLI, and it provided no ad revenue since he runs no ads. He was shocked by the recent revelations of extremism and plans no further association with the newspaper.
I think you should list the purely contextual information (that an FLI executive’s sibling has written articles for the newspaper etc) before the responsive information (that this did not influence the decision etc).
Also, definitely state the responsive information as two parts:
-Stuff that FLI knows, stated as fact
-”We reached out to [sibling], and he communicated the following”
FLI as an institution does not (I assume) accept representations by its executives’ family members as verified fact or allow them editorial influence. Separating the facts that FLI knows from the facts represented to FLI by the sibling emphasizes this.
It makes complete sense for Tegmark to defend & believe his brother in personal statements, and for FLI to give a relative the opportunity to communicate something in a circumstance like this.
However FLI isn’t Tegmark. FLI’s statements about his brother should be objective and based on information that can be verified by another executive. The statements should be made as if there’s a small chance it’s later discovered that his brother is lying about his politics or finances, because FLI should not make statements about Tegmark’s brother based on his personal judgement.