At 07:52 AM 10/13/2009, Nick Palmer wrote:
Jed has shot from the hip, unfairly.
I thought long and hard about whether or not to
comment on this, it's practically a lose-lose
situation. On the one hand, I have a great deal
of respect for Mr. Krivit, he's done a great deal
to benefit the field, and clearly works hard.
However, I've also seen him get personally
embroiled in disputes, and he ends up reporting
news that he created, i.e., the news is about his
own conflicts. That's a problem for a journalist,
and probably Steve should have a neutral editor, if he doesn't.
Was this story worth reporting? That's a
difficult call, in fact. There is the very real
privacy issue that Jed raised, in his own
inimitable style. Jed has a way of saying what
needs to be said, often, but isn't necessarily politic about it.
Behind what happened in England with the
scheduled interview may be a story that none of
us know, and may never know, and it basically
isn't our business, even though most of us are
quite concerned about Fleischmann and his health.
He looked good in the photo from Rome, I'll say,
but Krivit would be better qualified to report on
his condition there, and that kind of reporting
is good and desirable, even though it, too, can
be somewhat invasive. There is a balance between
privacy rights and the right of the public to
know. In the end, for me, the right of
Fleischmann and his family, as to what takes
place in his home and between whoever he -- or
his family -- trust for medical care, trumps the
desire I have for the latest news. Fleischmann
reportedly told Krivit in Rome that he could ask
any questions, there at the conference. That should be enough.
Now, I very much understand Krivit's
disappointment at being turned away. It seems
terribly unfair, and, indeed, it was unfair,
handled poorly by Feilino, but we don't know what
conditions Freilino faced, and he doesn't strike
me as one who would be expected to handle the
situation with high professionalism. He's young,
very young, and we don't know what instructions
he had. As I think I wrote before, if foul play
was suspected, the police should have been
called; trying to raise suspicion in the general
public, instead of with responsible authorities, was a poor move.
Steve's visit to interview Fleischmann at his
house, prior to both of them then going on to
the Rome conference, was organised and agreed
over three months previously. After everything
was finalised, and very close to the interview
date, it transpired that Fleischmann was in New
York with the Energetics technology people
(Dardik) and "may not be back in time". Extra
expense changing flights and accommodation
ensued to fit it with this last minute change.
Arriving in England, we were not even sure that
Fleischmann had returned home but Steve phoned
up anyway only to be greeted with a stonewalling
American voice (that turned out to be Ryan
Freilino of Energetics) that claimed to be part
of the "medical team" treating Martin F, that he
was to ill to answer the phone (the Fleischmanns
have a cordless phone) and that there would be
no interview. I've heard plenty of bullshitting
Yanks in my time and this was total bullshit, or I'm a Dutchman.
Do you have a Dutch passport? Snarky comments
aside, Fleischmann had just returned from a long
trip. He may have been quite fatigued; combine
this with some level of illness, quite simply, he
may have been in no condition to talk to anyone.
Nick, you are here reporting as fact what Krivit
told you, with not the bare text but with
interpretation, such as "stonewalling." You are
personally involved, you travelled too, and you
are angry. Understandable, it was disappointing,
and if it's possible to blame someone for your
disappointment, it's quite natural. But it isn't news.
Steve decided that as there was to be no
interview we might as well buy Martin some flowers and a get well card.
Nice. Too bad the flowers were accompanied with some spite.
We delivered these in person and were met by
Sheila F and Ryan Freilino, who repeated the
"he's too sick to see anyone" line. Steve made
some remark expressing sorrow that Martin was
not responding to the Dardik "LifeWaves"
treatment (bear in mind that Martin had been
well enough to be in New York and to travel back
to Tisbury which can be grueling even for people in the best of health).
Absolutely, Steve crossed the line there. The
flowers were absolutely on the mark, and it's a
shame Steve couldn't have taken some of the
wrapping and stuffed it in his mouth. If it was
as stated, it was an insult to both Freilino and
Fleischmann's wife. Fleischmann could, indeed, be
"responding" to the treatment and still be too
fatigued or too ill to meet with them. I could
also criticize, perhaps, a potential lack of
hospitality from Freilino or the wife, but I
don't have any report from them, and quite
insufficient detail from Krivit and Palmer. And
Freilino and Sheila aren't professionals in this
sense, and the comment from Krivit, reported
here, could have been quite enough to torpedo any
intended civility and kindness and understanding
for the difficulty Krivit and Palmer experienced.
Mysteriously, Martin F turned up at the Rome
conference a few days later, apparently as
healthy as anyone can be with his underlying
medical conditions, which no-one has disputed.
Upon being asked whether the "I vant to be
alone" messages were from him or others, he replied "other people".
Okay. And you can lay many layers of
interpretation on that, all speculation. What if
Fleischmann was sleeping at the time? I didn't
notice any "I want to be alone" message, by the
way. Did Freilino or Sheila say that "Martin
wants to be alone"? From the report from Krivit:
This week, Sheila Fleischmann told this reporter
that her husband has been confined to his bed
since returning to the U.K. several days ago. He
has been unable to see visitors or take phone calls, she said.
[Krivit then emailed a Dardik media relations rep.]
"I can tell you that my understanding is that
Fleischmann is doing quite well and that the
family is extremely encouraged with the progress
made this past summer at LifeWaves," Kramer
wrote today. "I dont believe that he is
confined to bed or too ill to talk on the phone
in fact, he conducted several press interviews during his time in the U.S."
This reporter then telephoned Sheila Fleischmann
and again asked to speak to her
husband. Freilino took the phone and advised
this reporter that it was the wish of the
Fleischmann family that this reporter not make
further contact with the Fleischmanns.
Freilino declined to answer to this reporter in
what capacity he was acting and specifically who
in the Fleischmann family had decided, on behalf
of Fleischmann, that this reporter cease
attempts to contact either Fleischmann.
Freilino also advised this reporter that further
attempts to contact either Fleischmann would
result in Freilinos calling the local police.
Krivit's own account is worse than what Palmer
reports. Nothing was attributed to Martin, and
Krivit's question to Fleischmann in Rome was off
the mark, asking a question about something that
was actually unlikely, "Was it you?" My guess is
that the "family," i.e., his wife, had decided
that Martin should rest; after all, he was
planning on travelling to Rome in a few days.
Either Freilino was spontaneously and
gratuitously rude (past contact with Krivit?) or
Krivit was being quite pushy; "in what capacity
are you acting" was a leading and intrusive and,
indeed, unnecessary question. Sheila's first
phone conversation, plus her handing of the phone
to Freilino, and her presumed hearing of
Freilino's remarks, shows that, whatever Martin
thinks about it, his wife is consenting to and
possibly is the source of the isolation. And that
is completely normal and fully understandable.
Should we encourage Fleischmann to confront his
over-controlling wife (i.e., if that's the
situation)? I'd say not. It's between him and
her, as long as he's competent, and he likely is.
At most, this incident would have been reported
in about a sentence in responsible and neutral coverage.
But it seems Krivit may have an agenda, to
discredit Dardik, and that's very dangerous in a
reporter. Investigative reporting, exposing
malfeasance or quackery, is a difficult field,
and it suffers when a reporter becomes personally
involved. Imputing from some temporary condition
of fatigue or even illness (and "too ill" could
mean either) that a medical treatment is failing isn't objective.
Either the LifeWaves treatment had a near
miraculous effect as soon as Steve politely
walked away from their door or MF wasn't
anywhere near as ill as Freilino alleged and the
whole story was just the Dardik's controlling
access to someone they are trying to use to give
their operation credibility. They have lost any
credibility they may have had with me, if this is the way they operate.
As an neutral witness, Nick, you have discredited
yourself, that's unfortunate. I don't doubt your
honesty in the report, but most of your report
wasn't your own direct experience, but quite
likely hearsay from Steve; yet you would have
witnessed some of what Steve reported, and you
omitted the negative parts of it from your own report. Get a grip.
If I were Freilino, helping care for Fleischmann,
if I were *anyone* helping care for Fleischmann,
even just a family friend, and Sheila was having
trouble repeating "No" to someone who didn't want
to take No for an answer, and handed me the
phone, I'd have said something like what Freilino
said. There is no evidence at all here for
quackery or for "controlling access," except a
very thin speculation that Freilino was the
source of the cancellation of the interview, not Sheila.
And now we have additional report from Jed,
confirming my inferences. And Jed is right. It
isn't our business, nor is it Steve's business;
indeed, he damaged his business by elevating his
own personal frustration as if it were notable
and important. Information about Dardik and the
LifeWave treatment is relevant, but speculation
and innuendo aren't "information," they merely
cloud the picture. It's unfortunate, perhaps,
that Dardik has his past and his medical
treatment issues, which are or easily resemble
quackery, but didn't we already know that someone
willing to pour such effort into cold fusion is
outside the norm? Vyosotskii has written about
water memory, which is as apparently quackified
as any subject could be, so every time we discuss
Vyosotskii's results on anything, should we
mention his water memory paper? Storms speculated
about spontaneous human combustion in his book on
LENR, does that impeach the rest of his work?
I don't think so. People who can think outside
the box, and work successfully in a field that is
largely rejected, must have a capacity for
thinking the unthinkable, and sometimes things
are unthinkable for a reason. It goes with the
territory, that if you open the door to something
like cold fusion, you also allow through the
filters truly crazy ideas. It's harmless, unless
someone concludes that because you were brilliant
about one thing, everything else you examine or
do must also be brilliant. Worthy of looking at,
perhaps, but not really relevant.
