Fraser Institute Doesn’t Realize So Many of its Own Editors are Dead?
With entirely benign intentions, I can assure you, I fear I sent The Exile into a Twitter typhoon without so much as an umbrella by observing recently that, as usual, some of the members of the Fraser Institute’s Editorial Board are deceased (and that this puts a grave complexion on the academic merits of their peer review process). Someone apparently retorted that the list of dead editors is from 2008 and is out of date, which is not only not true (the list of dead editors can be found on the back of the 2011 School Report Card, not on some old undead page dredged up out of the Fraser website’s shadowy past) but beside the point, given that the same five men were also dead in 2008.
It does raise a far more serious question, though, one which I initially missed. The Editorial Advisory Board is supposed to be the “final arbiter” of published reports, notwithstanding the fact that numerous members have already met their, um, Final Arbiter. But one of its members, Alan Walters, is not only dead and buried (as of 2009), but isn’t listed as such. This would seem to suggest the Fraser Institute hasn’t bothered to update their board list since 2009. Have they actually sent reports out to them for review in the meantime? Have they wondered why all the reports being sent to Walters are being bounced back?
Editor | Age in 2011 |
|---|---|
| Armen Alchian | 97 |
| Terry Anderson | 65 |
| Robert Barro | 67 |
| Michael Bliss | 70 |
| James Buchanan | 92 |
| Jean-Pierre Centi | Unknown |
| John Chant | Unknown (Retired) |
| Bev Dahlby | 60 |
| Erwin Diewert | 70 |
| Stephen Easton | ca. 65 |
| J.C. Herbert Emery | ca. 45 |
| Jack L. Granatstein | 72 |
| Herbert Grubel | 77 |
| James Gwartney | 71 |
| Friedrich Hayek | DEAD |
| H.G. Johnson | DEAD |
| Ronald W. Jones | ca. 80 |
| Jerry Jordan | Unknown (Alive) |
| Ross McKitrick | ca. 45 |
| Michael Parkin | 72 |
| F.G. Pennance | DEAD |
| Friedrich Schneider | 61 |
| L.B. Smith | ca. 70 |
| George Stigler | DEAD (1991) |
| Vito Tanzi | ca. 60 |
| Alan Walters | DEAD (2009) |
| Edwin West | DEAD (2001) |
Tweet
Mike Adamson
How do you know they’re not just resting?
Holly Stick
I bet they still vote at meetings. Picture the two 45-year-old youngsters running back and forth, frantically pulling strings to make the dead guys wave at the news media, who are fenced well back away from the smell…
Hey, maybe that’s why Harper makes the media keep their distance, because he is ALREADY DEAD?!?!?!?!!!!
Sixth Estate
Mike — They’re probably pining for the fjords, no?
Holly — You raise some disturbing questions.
chris
After checking wikipedia one might conclude that many of the living have been dead from the neck up for quite some time.
Sixth Estate
Maybe, chris. I was actually quite surprised at the relative lack of young blood on the board. One would think there would be a continual exchanging of scholars, but it seems more like a roach motel — no one ever leaves the advisory board.