Hendrik Hertzberg

From Science Besieged

Hendrik Hertzberg^[1], a 1965 graduate of Harvard University, has had a noteworthy career as a magazine editor and writer. He has been at the The New Yorker magazine for many years: staff writer from 1969 to 1977, executive editor since 1992, and editorial director since 1996. From 1979 until 1981, he was chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter. He was editor of The New Republic from 1981 to 1985 and again from 1988 to 1991.

His commentary generally concerns politics and society, upon which matters of science and science policy occasionally impinge.

Contents 1 Advocacy 1.1 "Mired" 1.2 "Matters of Life" 1.3 "Unsteady State" 2 References 3 Sources

Advocacy

"Mired"

In "Mired"^[2], Hertzberg took as his topic the origin of ilfe and various myths and theories that try to explain it, exploring the notion that mud is central to many creation myths, as an entrée to discussing a statement made by President Bush supporting the idea of teaching "Intelligent Design" creationism in public schools. Arranging a political and social context for analyzing the President's remarks and the Administration's attitudes towards science^[3] Hertzberg wrote:

But I.D.—whose central (and easily refuted) talking point is that certain structures of living things are too intricate to have evolved without the intervention of an “intelligent designer” (and You know who You are)—enjoys virtually no scientific support. It is not even a theory, in the scientific sense, because it is untestable and unsupportable by empirical evidence. It is a last-ditch skirmish in a misguided war against reason that cannot be won and, for religion's sake as well as science's, should not be fought.

"Matters of Life"

In his "Talk of the Town Comment" in the 4 April 2005 issue of The New Yorker, Hertzberg described^[4] how the sensationalistic use of video excerpts coupled with ill-informed, emotional appeals were used to arouse negative public opinion against scientific and legal findings in the tragic case of Terri Schaivo. In 1990 Schaivo suffered cardiac arrest, which resulted in severe, irreversible brain damage and coma. When she emerged from coma a few weeks later, "it was only to enter a 'persistent vegetative state,' with no evidence or hope of improvement—a diagnosis that, in the fifteen years since, has been confirmed, with something close to unanimity, by many neurologists on many occasions on behalf of many courts."

"Unsteady State"

In his commentary^[5] on President Bush's 2004 State of the Union Address, Hertzberg drew attention to the President's announcement, just the week before, of his “New Vision for Space Exploration” speech, in which he proposed that America send human explorers to Mars, a proposal that was not greeted with enthusiasm in the scientific community. Hertzberg concluded in his New Yorker commentary that the proposal may simply have been a rhetorical expedient since there was no mention of the Mars Plan in the State of the Union Address.

Hertzberg notes that if the mission is to be taken seriously, then Bush's proposed budget for it was inadequate, and that additional funding for it would come at the expense of existing science programs:

Another couple of billion is to be cannibalized out of the existing space budget. This kind of money will get no one to Mars, but that isn’t to say that Bush’s project will yield no results. It has already led to the cancellation of maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s most scientifically valuable project, which means that the Hubble will go blind in three or four years’ time. Bush’s “New Vision” is a sharp stick in the eye.

References

1. ^ The Hendrik Hertzberg website.
2. ^ Hendrik Hertzberg, "Mired", The New Yorker, 22 August 2005.
3. ^ "They [the President's musings] reflect an attitude toward science that has infected every corner of his Administration. From the beginning, the Bush White House has treated science as a nuisance and scientists as an interest group—one that, because it lies outside the governing conservative coalition, need not be indulged."
4. ^ Hendrik Hertzberg, "Matters of Life", The New Yorker, 4 April 2005.
5. ^ Hendrik Hertzberg, "Unsteady State", The New Yorker, 2 February 2004.

Sources

• "Character above All: Hendrik Hertzberg", pbs.org, c. 1996.
• Craig Lambert, "Hertzberg of the New Yorker", Harvard Magazine, January-February 2003.
• Paul McLeary, "Decades of wit, jabs and reflection", a review of Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004 by Hendrik Hertzberg, SF Gate, 18 July 2004.