Since I came to America, I have listened to Conservatives lament about outright hostile reporters in main street media. Often they were right on the money, sometimes they were just paranoid, but this time, they are just wrong.

When the Post hired Dave, the Conservatives got a rock solid beat reporter in a mainstream media outlet. One who probably knows more about the conservative movement than most of the clergy of the movement. They had a reporter who has publicly stated his sympathies to the movement. They had a reporter whose social circle belongs to one of the Conservative movement’s stepchildren, the civil libertarians.

This was evidently not good enough for the clergy of the Conservative movement. The problem was that David was a reporter first, and a movement guy second, and it was not even the right part of the movement. He wrote too much about the ugly truths that the movement wanted to hide, and was too critical about the movements icons. There is no room for truth in the movement, only worship.

The guy is a reporter, it is his job to write about what actually happened, not how the PR flaks wanted it to go down. His focus on the facts rather than the narrative is what a reporter is supposed to do. Get over it!

He was one of the few voices that actually provided a correcting light for the narcissistic self-righteousness of the Conservative clergy. Elements in the movement are batty as hell, and Dave pointed that out. Other elements are very healthy additions, and Dave cheered them on. One did not have to agree with him on all of these, but the record has proven Dave to be a fairly accurate yardstick on what is culminating in the movement before it actually bubbles to the surface where it is apparent to everyone.

I would not presume to call myself Dave’s friend, but we are acquaintances. We are in the same social circle, we share many friends, we have been to a lot of the same DC parties. As a person, he has been a funny, acerbic commenter on the political circus since I first met him three years ago.

As a journalist, he has proven himself to be an uncompromising reporter of the fact, he has a keen eye for the news, and he breaks news like there is no tomorrow. He also happened to choose a beat about something I care about. I admire his integrity and his professional abilities.

Since this mess really took off two weeks ago, I have watched Dave struggle with it from afar. I don’t think he was prepared for the onslaught that his transition to the Washington Post caused. I think he takes it personally, and that is one thing that you can’t afford to do. He has made the mistake of trusting some people he should not, which is another thing you can’t afford to do at the Washington Post level.

Because some of the youngens in the movement has made me the go-to counselor for professional and personal advice, they have dubbed me Mama Lene. Don’t ask me why, but given this role, it has not been easy to watch Dave try to cope with all the hostility and personal attention. We have similar education backgrounds, our professors has drilled it into our heads your work speaks for itself. No reporter ever wants to be the story. I have seen Dave struggle with the shift and I have been fighting an urge to just go hug him and provide him with some of the advice that could have helped, but you just don’t do that to young successful guys without invitation. We aren’t that close.

So yes, the Conservative clergy won a tiny victory today with Dave’s resignation from the post. The conservative movement has lost big time. Why? There is no mainstream media outlet with a staff reporter to give the movement a clear eyed chronicle and a correcting voice.

Knowing Dave, I think he will be back, bigger, badder, and more sardonic than he ever was. He is not the kind of guy to hide under a rock to lick his wounds and stay there. He has learned some lessons about limelight and whom he can trust the last two weeks, which makes him even stronger than he was. No sensible media outlet will turn down his application should he give one. In fact, I think several editors are already chomping at the bit to offer him a job.

My only book to keep? F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom.

The article is in Norwegian.

“I spent 45 years at The Providence Journal, and I still do not understand them. Nor do I like them.”

This was just the overture. Only a few hours after Sunshine’s piece had taken several honor laps among journalists on Twitter, the Helen Thomas video exploded. Rabbi Nesenoff for RabbiLive.com interviewed her during the celebration of Jewish Heritage at the White House on May 27.

When asked about her thoughts on Israel, Thomas replied, “Tell them [Israel] to get the hell out of Palestine.” She said Palestine was occupied. When asked where the Jews should go, she said “They should go home … to Poland, Germany, and America”.

The video did not get much traction until Breitbart.tv picked up the story. Then it exploded and currently it has almost 1.1 million views on YouTube. I watched it several times in sheer horror, as if watching a train wreck in progress. The hash tag to follow on Friday night was #helenthomasmovies, which included Helen Thomas inspired movie gems like Gazablanca, A West Bank Story, and Goys of New York, and a ton of much less clever references to her age.

The critique from people she worked with started coming Saturday. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called for her retirement Saturday, her speaker’s bureau dropped her Sunday, so did a Maryland high school where she was supposed to give a commencement speech. She issued a lukewarm apology Sunday.

“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon”.

It was way too little, way too late. Monday morning brought news that her long time collaborator Craig Crawford would not do any more projects with her and her seat in the White House Briefing Room sat empty. The press release about her retirement came around lunch.

Her statement is appalling, but her view on Israel is not news. She would never have put it this way if she were in a television studio where she could prepare her remarks and chat a “real” journalist. She did not recognize that this was the setting she was in when she was interviewed by a rabbi visiting the White House for an event. He had one of the small hand-held video cameras that has become the mainstay of journalists and bloggers alike, and she underestimated him.

She spoke her mind, instead of the sanitized, depersonalized version she would have given a fellow reporter, because she did not recognize a citizen reporter when she saw one. Now her career is over. A long, distinguished career, which should have ended in a retirement with nice parties, recognition from fellow DC A-listers, and maybe even the President, but it ended in scorn and ridicule.The only reason it ended like this was that she was out of touch with the new media reality.

Old media establishment 0 – New media establishment 1.

Here are the lessons the old geezers* and geezettes* of the old media establishment should take home from this:

1 The bully pulpit is dead, so are all the gatekeepers that insulate you. No gatekeepers insulate you against your audience anymore, and they cannot insulate you against your own hubris. The new media landscape is distributed and decentralized. You should know how to network if you made it this far, now network your content.

2. No one listens just because you are top tier media any more. They listen if you produce great reporting. Great reporting got you there in the first place; there is no reason to stop now. Create great reporting, network the reporting, and you got a good foundation.

3. Be your own brand without becoming the content. Good reporters are never the story, this was the first lesson your first editor taught you. Don’t make your own celebrity status let you forget that. You do not matter, but your reporting does. Solid work should be your brand and you represent that brand whenever you interact with people, no matter the forum.

4. Be gracious. You are at the top of your game, what else do you have to prove? Don’t look down on the newbies with all their gadgets. The tools have changed, the game has changed, but it is just as hard. Don’t underestimate the ones that are climbing up the pole after you, even if you don’t understand how they are planning to climb the pole, it is no longer the same pole that you climbed.

4. Play. New media is fun. It lets you interact with your audience, which can be scary, frustrating, and exhilarating at the same time. Enlist them to help you get better, rally them to your cause, learn from their arguments, and learn how they consume your work. Learn enough to understand that the bully pulpits are gone, that people care about great stories still, that the quality of your work is your brand, and that graciousness will let you survive and retire on top.

*Please note that my use of geezer and geezette is not a reference to age, only to a particular media frame of mind. There are plenty of savvy media people with half a century worth of reporting behind them, but they stay interested and in touch with the world around them.

Get the reddest, juiciest strawberries you can find in the market, quarter them, and put them a pretty serving bowl. Five minutes before serving, toss the strawberries lightly with lime sugar.

Lene’s Lime Sugar

1 dl sugar

zest of 1 lime

Mix and put in an airtight container. Mix will keep for several months.

Lene’s Blackberry Sage Iced Tea

4 Lipton Cold Brew pitcher brew bags

8 liters/quarts water

500 gr/18 oz blackberries

Juice of 1 lemon

5 large sage leaves, chiffoned

8 dashes Fee Rhubarb bitters

8 dashes Fee Grapefruit bitters

12 bags Sweet n’ Low

Notes: Next time I think I’d make a sage flavored syrup before I make this concoction, or use a ton more sage. The rhubarb and grapefruit bitters mellowed into the background once the tea stood for a while, so playing around with the amount of bitters is a good idea. I think adding a few Angostura bitters might make it pop too.

I tried mixing this with a bit of whiskey, and later a bit of brandy. I think both mixes have potential (brandy was most palatable to my tongue, but that is most likely because I used crap rail whiskey). Althou\gh I think the cocktail would be better if I mixed the spirit with plain iced tea, a sage flavored syrup,  muddled blackberries, and bitters in the shaker directly would make the flavor come out more strongly. Another possible option is using a blackberry flavored brandy, but I feel like that is cheating a bit for the particular cocktail book project I am working on currently.

Update: This tea was really refreshing with my favorite spirit: gin. The mix of this tea with gin gives it the umph that was missing due to the fading bitters in the tea.

A peculiar headline caught my attention amidst all the electioneering coverage last night. The Canadian Press headline read “NASA scientist urges Norway to pull out of Alberta’s ‘destructive’ oilsands”.

I first wondered why a federal employee who does not work for the state department was writing letters to the Norwegian Prime Minister, instructing the Minister how to conduct foreign policy. I would think that Ambassador Barry B. White would be a more appropriate spokesperson.

It turns out that Hansen was very careful to not use his title “Director: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies”. He signed the letter as “member of the National Academy of Sciences, an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and at Columbia’s Earth Institute, grandfather, and winner of the Sophie Prize 2010″. This is quite dishonest, as most reporters, including the Canadian ones, will give him attributions such as “NASA scientist”.

Hansen has been one of the darlings of the Norwegian climate activists, as he has been “brave enough” to speak against the misguided Bush policies. His upcoming trip to Norway to receive the Sophie Prize makes his name a hot news commodity back home. This Prize is given out to people who work for the environment and “a postive, alternative development”. Previous winners include violent anti-capitalist activist group Attac France and other obscure left-leaning activists.

Tomorrow is the day for the annual shareholder’s meeting in Statoil. This used to be the public oil company in Norway. Statoil is now publicly traded on the Norwegian Stock Exchange, but the government still retains ownership of 2/3^rd of the stock. WWF and Greenpeace have been pressuring shareholders to vote for a resolution instructing the company to withdraw from the Candian tar sands project for months now. The most important shareholder is the government. In February, the two green corporations tried to get the parliament to instruct the executive cabinet to vote for the resolution.

The same resolution got .15 percent of the vote at last year’s shareholders meeting. Another few corporate shareholders that were afraid of corporate attacks abstained. Greenpeace Norway says more companies have “promised” to abstain this year.

Using Hansen’s prominent international profile creates an impression that the U.S. has a position on the issue, even if the other oil companies that are partners in the tar sands project are American. His letter to the Prime Minister appeared on the most prestigious op ed page in Norway , and another appeal appeared as a full-page add in one of the smaller national newspapers with the logos of the entire gaggle of multinational green corporations beneath.   None of the content is particularly controversial coming from an academic known for his environmental activism.

I have intimate knowledge with how Norwegian intellectuals and executives misreads the American policy discourse. I have to hand it to Greenpeace; they landed the golden egg on this campaign, even though it did not persuade the Secretary of Energy to vote for the resolution this time.

Hansen is not known for being a professor at Columbia University in Norway. His usual media attribution is “NASA’s chief climate scientist”. Norwegian executives who either do or want to do business in America will consider whether a vote against this resolution on the shareholder’s meeting will trip them up in dealings with the U.S. government. Norwegian intellectuals can sometimes be provincial and gullible enough to think that Hansen’s position is the fashionable cosmopolitan position, without examining the unintended consequences of these inappropriate ties between political institutions and a commercial enterprise, such as Statoil. In the mean time, we should probably discuss how we expect federal employees to behave as individuals on the international policy scene, when the job assignment might be construed as that person speaking on behalf of the U.S.

Most people don’t celebrate Easter as a religious holiday, unless you count sun worship and being out in nature as a religion. It is the official end of winter and beginning of spring. I always miss Norway this time of year, mostly because its a relaxing holiday and there is no way an American can take that much time off to celebrate the return of sun, light, and green things.

Sons of Norway asked if I could write a piece on how to do Easter, Norwegian style for their Viking Magazine. It was a fun piece, and although it has been liberally cut, I still ended up with a front page and six pages within the book. Check out pages eight through 13 in the magazine. You can learn about food traditions, hiking snacks tips, the uniquely Norwegian Easter crime tradition, and get your Norwegian on!

Easter, Norwegian Style

A television story from Afghanistan on Norwegian television on New Years Eve spurred a curious debate where it appeared that a large Norwegian newspaper said the military should have censored the footage. I started talking to Norwegian colleagues and the conversations turned very interesting story about Norwegian war coverage and the changing face of the Norwegian military. It ended up in this month’s edition of Columbia Journalism Review.

Too Much Information?

Marc landed in Copenhagen with the Esquire writer John H. Richardson in tow. The profile John wrote about Marc was published today, and it looks like I have a guest appearance on the final page of the web story complete with a misspelled name.

I prefer to write about people, not to get written about, but I guess this will be my first and only time in Esquire, so I might as well add it to my media portfolio. Maybe you can get a tiny idea of how crazy Copenhagen really was, and John only writes about a fraction of it!

This Man Wants to Convince You Global Warming Is a Hoax

The movie looks at global warming, fossil fuels, and malaria. It brings up a host of issues that might be bewildering for a teacher to use in the class room, so the directors asked if I could make ready to use lesson plans in social and natural sciences so the students can explore the issues with hands on experiments in the class room.

I have taught both high school and college, and I miss teaching dearly, so I took on the challenge. The result is a monster-sized teacher guide that was reviewed by expert academic reviewers within their fields. The plans comply with National Science Education Standards issued by the National Science Foundation and the Curriculum Standards for Social Studies issued by the National Council for Social Studies.

I tried to make the lessons interactive and hands-on. I focused on science literacy, fact checking, understanding the nature of scientific knowledge, understanding of what happens to science when it steps into the policy scene, and fundamental understanding of economic and political dynamics. It’s an ambitious goal, but judging by the feedback I got from the subject matter experts, I have reason to think I got fairly close to that goal. Here is the general outline of the lessons:

Natural Science

Global Warming

-Polar bean count

Students will learn how biologists estimate the population of a transient organism and will examine the existing data on polar bear populations.

-It is all about how you measure

Students will examine the existing knowledge about historic temperatures as well as future temperature projections. This project is a light version of the literature review that researchers do to assess current knowledge about a subject before proposing a research project to test and expand current knowledge.

-Truth or Dare

Students will examine statements about science findings in the public and trace them back to the original journal article. This project will also provide them with experience in researching a subject and creating a presentation or paper based on this research. They will search for references and evaluating the credibility of these resources.

Natural Science

Malaria

-Risk-Risk Analysis: “Darned if you do, darned if you don’t”

Students will learn to evaluate comparative risks and choose the least harmful activity to pursue.

-Ecology of Human Suffering

Students will learn about the leading cause of human mortality and illness worldwide: malaria. This disease is an example of how humans fit into an ecological whole. The lesson will provide the students with an understanding of this ecological relationship.

-Neglected Tropical Diseases

Students will examine the biotic relationship between organisms in an environment, in this case the parasites that cause the diseases that the international public health community has labeled as “neglected tropical diseases,” the disease vectors, and humans. The students will learn about the ecological conditions required for these diseases to thrive and spread easily.

Natural Science

Renewable Fuels

-Science publishing

Students will investigate scientific publishing and how lay media and trade publications use peer-reviewed articles for sourcing. They will examine a peer-reviewed article, the story about the article in a big science magazine, and the story about the article in a major newspaper and then find and describe the subtle differences in how the research is portrayed in each. This difference is instrumental in the understanding of science among regular people.

-Technology comparison

Students will examine technology and innovation cycles. The students will learn about incremental improvements and decreasing costs. When they complete this lesson, students should be able to identify the benefits and drawbacks of coal and of the most common alternatives to fossil fuels.

-Will we run out of energy?

Students will examine recent history of energy innovation and cost, with a particular focus on petroleum. The students will study the history of energy shortage fear, why current “guesstimates” about remaining petroleum caches is a moving target, decreasing prices on energy, and how to perform data driven forecasting about the future.

Social Science

Global Warming

It’s getting hot in here

Students will examine the rise and decline of the Norse settlement in Greenland as a case study on how climate can impact a society. This lesson will provide students with an understanding of the human ecological niche, its limitations, and humans’ ability to adapt to the environment.

-Is poverty sustainable?

Students will examine the connection between energy consumption and poverty eradication. They will learn about energy efficient micro technology initiatives that free up human labor. The lesson also introduces them to the Kuznet curve, which predicts that affluence leads individuals to desire conservation and use of cleaner energy once basic needs are fulfilled.

- A tale of two cities

Students will examine the role of energy in economic growth by picking one micro technology that has been proven to free up human labor. They will learn about how this technology changed the local community, and imagine what that community would look like if the technology were not deployed in the first place

Social Science

Malaria

-Public choice on the international policy scene

Students will learn to identify enlightened selfinterest in public policy discourse. They will examine the international policy arena and learn about the positions of the various groups that are participating in the decision making about malaria and DDT. They should be able to look at each group and identify the motivation behind the policies each group advocates.

-Walk a mile in my shoes

Students will examine how personal experience makes people prioritize and view the world differently. They should learn to understand where the other person is coming from by immersing themselves in the other person’s reality

-What if malaria were never eradicated in the U.S.?

Students will examine the social and economic effects of malaria on a community. The students will learn about the history of malaria eradication in this country, and examine how the U.S. would look today if history were different.

Social Science

Renewable Fuels

-Dude! Where’s my car?

Students will examine the role of transportation in our society and explore the effects of policies that seek to limit transportation.

-Not in my back yard!

The students will examine the unintended consequences of policies that intend to prematurely eliminate use of fossil fuels in the U.S. They will discuss the ethics of exporting pollution to countries with less regulation, corporate motivation to benefit from such a policy, and the factors that will make an elected representative support this policy.

-Civics

Students will examine the current policy climate surrounding renewable fuels and research the positions of the local elected representatives to the U.S. Congress. At the end of the lesson, they will write a letter to one of the local representatives (senator or representative) with the students’ concern about the issue.

You can download the entire 120 page .pdf on Not Evil Just Wrong’s website.