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It’s very easy to blame malicious journalists or ousted founders that carry a grudge, but at some point, public relations becomes something that an organization has to take its own responsibility for. Otherwise you end up with articles like this latest in the New York Times:

According to [CFI founder Paul] Kurtz, there were two areas of conflict. First, he says, [new CFI CEO Ron] Lindsay changed the work culture. Whereas Mr. Kurtz had managed “in the spirit of a think tank,” Mr. Lindsay brought his legal background to bear.

“I am used to the academic life, where we don’t impose rules on employees,” Mr. Kurtz said, sitting in his living room. But Mr. Lindsay, he said, “set up a command system, said these are the rules and laws, and anyone who deviates from that will be investigated.”

Employees were interrogated for minor infractions, Mr. Kurtz said, and several were let go. “That is like Stalinism or the Inquisition,” Mr. Kurtz said.

By phone and by e-mail, Mr. Lindsay said that the “investigations” were due-process inquiries into complaints, and that he had not fired anyone for questioning his authority. He said that four employees were laid off for economic reasons, one resigned, and one freelance employee did not have his contract renewed. Only the center’s spokesman, Nathan Bupp, who left last week, may have been fired; Mr. Lindsay, in an e-mail, would only say, “This was not a layoff.”

More generally, he said that Mr. Kurtz, after 30 years of leadership, simply found it too difficult to cede responsibility; in particular, Mr. Lindsay mentioned fund-raising, saying that Mr. Kurtz was reluctant to introduce him to donors he had known for years. [emphasis added]

Yes, Kurtz won’t shut up, and that’s damaging the organization, but Lindsay holds as much responsibility for feeding these sharks with lines that fit the narrative of a growing “rift.”

While there are many unrelated reasons that I have chosen to severely limit my involvement with the Centre for Inquiry Vancouver (which I will not get into here), this “rift” reflects horribly across all CFI, even though CFI Canada is a separate legal entity (although Lindsay does sit on the board of CFI Canada and CFI Transnational still provides the majority of the funding to CFI Canada).

While CFI Canada arrogantly bills itself as “Canada’s premiere venue for humanists, skeptics and freethinkers,” it is worth remembering that there are numerous other freethought organizations that are uniquely Canadian and others that are significantly older than CFI Canada.

It’s great to get into the New York Times, but not all news is good news.