# Poles Apart: How A Journalist Divided A City

An episode of [Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1484511465), 4 Aug 2023, 37 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/18db03/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c0ae8c6e-22f0-4e9b-ac1c-ae390037ac53/1ed424c5-5830-46c5-b30d-b04c00fc2294/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f5a4714-6b10-4ccf-a424-ae390037ac70

Heroic explorer Frederick Cook has just returned from the very roof of the world, the first man to reach the North Pole. Or so he says. Journalist Philip Gibbs has been watching him, and he’s convinced he’s lying. When Gibbs publishes that belief, he stands alone. Cook has a gripping manner and an excellent reputation: his winning tale must be true. Diners boo Gibbs at a restaurant, newspapers publish sly-looking caricatures of him, and he even receives threats of violence. But then, everything changes. We often think of polarisation as a modern problem — but the story of Cook and Gibbs has much to teach us here. For a full list of sources for this episode, please visit timharford.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:15] Speaker 1: Pushkin. Off the coast of Helsingor, thirty miles north of Copenhagen,
[0:27] Speaker 1: a small boat sails up alongside a big one. On
[0:32] Speaker 1: the small boat are a few Danish journalists and one
[0:35] Speaker 1: English journalist. The englishman is feeling cold. In his excitement
[0:41] Speaker 1: at getting on board, he forgot his coat. It's chilly
[0:45] Speaker 1: early on a September morning. The year is nineteen oh nine.
[0:52] Speaker 1: Down from the deck of the large ship snakes a
[0:54] Speaker 1: rope ladder for Danish journalists leap confidently, grip the rope
[0:59] Speaker 1: ladder and shimmy up onto the deck. The English journalist gulps.
[1:06] Speaker 1: He's not used to this kind of thing. He stands
[1:08] Speaker 1: on the side of the small boat and tries not
[1:11] Speaker 1: to look down at the swirling sea. He screws up
[1:14] Speaker 1: his courage and jumps, grabs at the rope and dangles
[1:18] Speaker 1: his leg frantically searching for a wrung. At last, he
[1:23] Speaker 1: finds one and hauls himself up the ladder. On the
[1:30] Speaker 1: deck of the big ship, he's greeted by a big man,
[1:34] Speaker 1: an American in baggy, well worn clothes, with unkempt hair
[1:39] Speaker 1: and a warm smile. The man extends his hand. I
[1:44] Speaker 1: guess you're the first Englishman to give me a greeting,
[1:47] Speaker 1: he says. The big man on the big ship is
[1:51] Speaker 1: Frederick Cook, an explorer. He's just come back from the Arctic,
[1:56] Speaker 1: where he says he set foot on the very roof
[1:59] Speaker 1: of the world, the North Pole, the first person ever
[2:04] Speaker 1: to do so. It's a historic achievement and a huge
[2:09] Speaker 1: new story. Every journalist in the world would wish they
[2:12] Speaker 1: were on Cook's ship, getting an exclusive chat with the
[2:16] Speaker 1: explorer as he sails those last thirty miles into Copenhagen,
[2:20] Speaker 1: where Danes are preparing a hero's welcome. The English journalist
[2:26] Speaker 1: is called Philip Gibbs. Over the next five hectic days
[2:31] Speaker 1: in Copenhagen, a bitter divide is going to open up
[2:35] Speaker 1: between the enthusiasts and the doubters on the question of
[2:39] Speaker 1: whether or not Frederick Cook really did reach the North Pole.
[2:44] Speaker 1: Philip Gibbs is going to cause that divide. This is
[2:49] Speaker 1: a story if you'll forg of the pun about the
[2:52] Speaker 1: poll and polarization. I'm Tim Harford and you're listening to
[3:00] Speaker 1: cautionary tales. Philip Gibbs never really wanted to be a
[3:28] Speaker 1: news reporter. He preferred descriptive writing, he started his career
[3:33] Speaker 1: as a literary critic, and he took some time off
[3:35] Speaker 1: and rented a coastguard's cottage for the peace and quiet
[3:39] Speaker 1: to write a novel, his first The coastguard's cottage turned
[3:44] Speaker 1: out to be next to a funfair. Somehow, he still
[3:48] Speaker 1: managed to write the novel. But while he looked for
[3:51] Speaker 1: a publisher, he had a wife and newborn child to support.
[3:56] Speaker 1: London's Daily Chronicle needed a reporter. Gibbs was hardly a natural.
[4:03] Speaker 1: Newshounds should be confident. Gibbs was painfully shy, but the
[4:09] Speaker 1: job and now his editor told him to go to
[4:12] Speaker 1: Copenhagen because that's where Frederick Cook was about to arrive.
[4:17] Speaker 1: More than two years had passed since the American explorer
[4:21] Speaker 1: set off for the North Pole. He should have got
[4:23] Speaker 1: back a year ago. No one had heard from him.
[4:27] Speaker 1: People assumed he was dead if they thought of him
[4:29] Speaker 1: at all. But no in a tiny town on a
[4:34] Speaker 1: remote North Sea island, Cook had just turned up at
[4:38] Speaker 1: the telegraph office clutching a two thousand word draft about
[4:43] Speaker 1: his epic trek to the Pole. He telegraphed a newspaper
[4:47] Speaker 1: in New York would they like to pay him three
[4:50] Speaker 1: thousand dollars to print his article. They would. That's hundreds
[4:56] Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars in today's money, but it was
[4:58] Speaker 1: worth every cent. The news was sensational, and Frederick Cook
[5:03] Speaker 1: was a pretty good descriptive writer himself. With a single step,
[5:09] Speaker 1: we could pass from one side of the earth to
[5:11] Speaker 1: the other. From midday to midnight. A sentiment of intense
[5:15] Speaker 1: solitude penetrated us while we looked at the horizon. In London,
[5:23] Speaker 1: a rival newspaper, to the Daily Chronicle, brought the rights
[5:26] Speaker 1: to Cook's definitive account. The Chronicle would have to play
[5:30] Speaker 1: catch up. Go to Copenhagen, said the editor to Gibbs.
[5:35] Speaker 1: Maybe you can get an interview with Cook, find some
[5:38] Speaker 1: kind of fresh angle. Gibbs wasn't keen. He'd rather be
[5:43] Speaker 1: at home with his wife and child. He knew nothing
[5:46] Speaker 1: at all about Arctic exploration and cared even less. But
[5:52] Speaker 1: he was a news reporter. He had to go where
[5:55] Speaker 1: his editor told him. The story of Frederick Cook and
[6:02] Speaker 1: Philip Gibbs is told in a new book called The
[6:05] Speaker 1: Explorer and the Journalist by Richard Evans. The Chronicle's editor
[6:10] Speaker 1: gave Philip Gibbs a bag of gold coins for expenses.
[6:14] Speaker 1: Gibbs took the razor and toothbrush he kept in the
[6:17] Speaker 1: office and hurried to catch a boat to Copenhagen. He
[6:21] Speaker 1: arrived in the early evening and got in a taxi.
[6:25] Speaker 1: Take me somewhere I can get a coffee, he said.
[6:28] Speaker 1: In a smoke filled cafe, he found a waiter who
[6:32] Speaker 1: spoke English. I'm a journalist, he said. Ah, yes, said
[6:37] Speaker 1: the waiter. There are many journalists in Copenhagen today. Has
[6:41] Speaker 1: doctor Cook arrived yet? No? He hasn't. He should have,
[6:45] Speaker 1: but it's too foggy. His ship has moored for the
[6:48] Speaker 1: night near Helsingal, thirty miles away. He'll arrive in the morning.
[6:53] Speaker 1: Gibbs sipped his coffee and leafed through a Danish newspaper.
[6:57] Speaker 1: He didn't understand a word except for doctor Cook. Then
[7:03] Speaker 1: a glamorous looking woman walked into the cafe with two companions.
[7:09] Speaker 1: The waiter said to Gibbs, that's Dagmar Rasmussen, the wife
[7:13] Speaker 1: of Cnud Rasmussen. Cnud Rasmussen. Gibbs was baffled. Cnud Rasmussen
[7:21] Speaker 1: the famous Danish explorer. Everyone in Denmark knew all about
[7:26] Speaker 1: the dashing young Knud who had long dreamed of being
[7:29] Speaker 1: first to the North Pole himself. In his article for
[7:34] Speaker 1: the Chronicle, Gibbs later misidentified the woman as the wife
[7:38] Speaker 1: of Roald Amundson, the famous Norwegian explorer who would later
[7:43] Speaker 1: be first to the South Pole. We heard all about
[7:47] Speaker 1: Amuerson in our previous Cautionary Tales trilogy South Pole Race.
[7:52] Speaker 1: Rasmussen Amundsen Danish Norwegian. Close enough, as I said, Gibbs
[7:57] Speaker 1: knew nothing about explorers, but he knew enough about news
[8:01] Speaker 1: reporting to realize that he probably ought to try to
[8:05] Speaker 1: talk to this woman in the White Fox Fair, whoever's
[8:08] Speaker 1: wife she was. But the woman was so forbiddingly beautiful,
[8:14] Speaker 1: and Gibbs was very shy. He screwed up his courage
[8:19] Speaker 1: and went to introduce himself. My husband said, The woman
[8:25] Speaker 1: was the last man to see doctor Cook and his
[8:27] Speaker 1: Inuit guides before they set out for the Pole. I
[8:30] Speaker 1: wish I could be the first to welcome him to Denmark. Well, then,
[8:35] Speaker 1: said Gibbs, why don't we all go to helsingor we
[8:39] Speaker 1: can stay in a hotel and take a boat out
[8:41] Speaker 1: to meet his ship first thing in the morning. That's
[8:44] Speaker 1: a nice idea, said Dagmar Rasmussen. But we've missed the
[8:48] Speaker 1: last train. What about a taxi? No, that doesn't work.
[8:53] Speaker 1: You see, there's a law against driving outside the city
[8:56] Speaker 1: at night. You can be fined. Gibbs thought for a
[9:00] Speaker 1: moment and remembered his bag of gold coins. How much
[9:06] Speaker 1: is the fine? Found the taxi driver who was willing
[9:11] Speaker 1: to risk it for a price. He hurtled them at
[9:14] Speaker 1: breakneck speed along the dark road between Copenhagen and Helsingor.
[9:19] Speaker 1: They ran over a cyclist. Ah Luckily the man wasn't
[9:23] Speaker 1: badly hurt, and as dawn broke the next morning, Gibbs
[9:28] Speaker 1: got his reward for overcoming his diffidence. He stood on
[9:32] Speaker 1: a small boat with a couple of Danish journalists who'd
[9:34] Speaker 1: had the same idea, approaching the big ship that would
[9:38] Speaker 1: soon take Frederick Cook into Copenhagen. After the Danish journalists
[9:46] Speaker 1: and Gibbs had ascended the rope ladder, Cook invited them
[9:49] Speaker 1: into his ship's cabin for breakfast. The journalist sat and
[9:53] Speaker 1: listened as the American held court. It was always the same,
[9:58] Speaker 1: one day like another, going onwards to the north with
[10:02] Speaker 1: nothing in sight upon the great white desert, and then
[10:07] Speaker 1: the chance for questions, what evidence are you bringing? Asked Gibbs,
[10:13] Speaker 1: that you really reached the North Pole. I bring the
[10:16] Speaker 1: same proofs as every other explorer. I bring my story.
[10:22] Speaker 1: Do you doubt that? The ship steamed slowly into Copenhagen,
[10:28] Speaker 1: and there in the harbor was an incredible scene. Fifty
[10:34] Speaker 1: thousand people, hundreds of boats, including the royal boat on it,
[10:39] Speaker 1: the Crown Prince of Denmark, the American flag, flying horns
[10:43] Speaker 1: and whistles, a band playing See the Conquering Hero comes.
[10:49] Speaker 1: Gibbs watched Cook take in this incredible welcome. Was that
[10:55] Speaker 1: a nervous look in the explorer's eye? Philip Gibbs thought
[11:01] Speaker 1: it was. He decided that Frederick Cook was lying. Portionary
[11:09] Speaker 1: tales will be back after the break. Why had Philip
[11:18] Speaker 1: Gibbs decided that Frederick Cook was lying about his epic
[11:22] Speaker 1: journey to the North Pole. Gibbs himself later said it
[11:26] Speaker 1: was intuition, some quick instinct of facial expression, some sensibility
[11:31] Speaker 1: to mental and moral dishonesty. And maybe it was. But
[11:36] Speaker 1: there's another more prosaic explanation. Gibbs was a young, unknown
[11:42] Speaker 1: journalist with a novel to promote. If he filed the
[11:45] Speaker 1: same stories as every other journalist, waxing lyrical about the
[11:49] Speaker 1: waving flags and Cook's compelling story, he wouldn't stand out
[11:54] Speaker 1: from the crowd. Maybe it was worth the risk of
[11:57] Speaker 1: writing something different enough to get him noticed. Not too
[12:01] Speaker 1: much risk, though, Gibbs couldn't flat out accues Cook of
[12:05] Speaker 1: lying with no evidence at all. If Cook actually had
[12:09] Speaker 1: had been to the poll, he could sue the chronicle
[12:11] Speaker 1: for libel. So Gibbs wrote an article that would pass
[12:15] Speaker 1: the libel lawyers, but in a tone that dripped with disbelief.
[12:21] Speaker 1: His eyes would not look into mine. He smiles when
[12:25] Speaker 1: a man speaks to him for quite a long time
[12:28] Speaker 1: before he answers. He seems to be cautious with words.
[12:35] Speaker 1: Gibbs recalled Cook's answer to his question about evidence, I
[12:39] Speaker 1: bring my story. Do you doubt that? It seemed to
[12:43] Speaker 1: Gibbs that Cook had said that with a flash of anger.
[12:47] Speaker 1: I thought, Hello, what's wrong? This man protests too much?
[12:54] Speaker 1: Cook explained, wrote Gibbs, that he had, of course taken
[12:58] Speaker 1: scientific instruments with him and made observations, as every explorer does.
[13:03] Speaker 1: That's how it works. Explorers make records of their journeys,
[13:07] Speaker 1: and then some auga scientific institution forms a committee of
[13:12] Speaker 1: experts to check those records and say they're satisfied the
[13:16] Speaker 1: story stacks up that the evidence suggests the explorer is
[13:20] Speaker 1: telling the truth. Cook assured Gibbs that he would present
[13:24] Speaker 1: the usual kind of records to some appropriate scientific body
[13:28] Speaker 1: in due course, but he didn't have his instruments or
[13:32] Speaker 1: records with him now. He'd left them in a settlement
[13:36] Speaker 1: in northern Greenland, a kind of base camp for Arctic exploration.
[13:41] Speaker 1: Another explorer had promised to take them directly to New York.
[13:46] Speaker 1: To Gibbs, that didn't make sense. Surely he should have
[13:50] Speaker 1: retained the strongest proofs of his claim so that it
[13:54] Speaker 1: might be immediately established. That was a fair point. Some
[14:02] Speaker 1: other doubts Gibbs raised were not so fair. At one point,
[14:07] Speaker 1: Cook made a throwaway remark about not having worn a
[14:10] Speaker 1: beard for fifteen years. Gibbs picked him up on it.
[14:15] Speaker 1: Was he saying that he'd been able to shave while
[14:18] Speaker 1: at the pole, of course not. Cook laughed. He explained
[14:23] Speaker 1: that you don't want a beard in the Arctic because
[14:25] Speaker 1: icicles would form on it. You hack off your facial
[14:28] Speaker 1: hair as best you can with an eye for scissors.
[14:32] Speaker 1: Gibbs thought that sounded fishy. He might not know his
[14:36] Speaker 1: Rasmussens from his Ammunsons, but he had seen photographs of
[14:39] Speaker 1: explorers before, and he was sure that some of them
[14:42] Speaker 1: had beards. Something else Cook said made Gibbs suspicious too.
[14:49] Speaker 1: He'd been to the Pole with two Inuit companions, then
[14:53] Speaker 1: widely known as Eskimos, and he praised them wholeheartedly. The
[14:58] Speaker 1: Inuit are and intelligent and cultured people. He said. That
[15:03] Speaker 1: didn't sound right to Gibbs. I'd always thought the Eskimos
[15:08] Speaker 1: were the most primitive and ignorant race on Earth. The
[15:12] Speaker 1: primitive ignorance here was Gibbs's racism. But it all added
[15:17] Speaker 1: up to make Gibbs convinced that Cook was bluffing. He
[15:21] Speaker 1: didn't want to risk saying that explicitly, but he made
[15:25] Speaker 1: it clear enough. Whether his answers seem satisfactory, I will
[15:31] Speaker 1: leave my readers to judge. Gibbs wired his article to
[15:37] Speaker 1: the Chronicle, and news of what had written soon got
[15:40] Speaker 1: back to Denmark, where the Danes had taken Cook to
[15:43] Speaker 1: their hearts. It caused an uproar. The shy, retiring Gibbs
[15:49] Speaker 1: became instantly notorious. He ruefully described himself as the most
[15:55] Speaker 1: unpopular man in Copenhagen. Diners booed him in a restaurant.
[16:00] Speaker 1: A newspaper published a caricature depicting him with a darkened
[16:04] Speaker 1: face and a slyly evil look. He even got threats
[16:09] Speaker 1: of violence. Faced with this hostility, Gibbs felt there was
[16:14] Speaker 1: only one thing to do, double down. He sought out
[16:19] Speaker 1: any expert he could find who might help him pick
[16:22] Speaker 1: holes in Cook's story. He followed Cook to events, observing
[16:27] Speaker 1: him closely. This wasn't always easy. Some of those events
[16:31] Speaker 1: were black tie, and Gibbs hadn't brought his dress suit
[16:35] Speaker 1: with him. He borrowed one from the waiter he'd met
[16:38] Speaker 1: in the cafe. It was stained with grease and far
[16:41] Speaker 1: too big. He had to hold the trousers up as
[16:44] Speaker 1: he walked. When Cook gave speeches, Gibbs seemed to notice
[16:49] Speaker 1: things others didn't. There were many awkward pauses, he informed
[16:56] Speaker 1: his readers. Dr Cook stumbled badly, his face was flushed,
[17:01] Speaker 1: his forehead beaded with perspiration. Another journalist described the same
[17:06] Speaker 1: speech as given coolly and without hesitation. Cook struck most
[17:12] Speaker 1: people as charming, fluent, and plausible. But also Cook wasn't
[17:19] Speaker 1: just some random person who'd appeared from nowhere. Other explorers
[17:23] Speaker 1: knew him, and they mostly seemed to like him, none
[17:27] Speaker 1: more so than rolled Amundson. The famous Norwegian Frederick Cook
[17:32] Speaker 1: is the most honest man I've ever met, said Amundson.
[17:36] Speaker 1: If he says he's reached the Pole, I believe him.
[17:42] Speaker 1: Ten years earlier, Cook and Amundson had become firm friends
[17:47] Speaker 1: on an epic voyage to the Antarctic when their ship
[17:51] Speaker 1: got stuck in ice for an entire year. Amundson, then
[17:56] Speaker 1: young and unknown, Cook the ship's doctor. They'd saved each
[18:00] Speaker 1: other's lives roped together on a perilous trek across a
[18:04] Speaker 1: glacial crevasse. They'd discussed ideas to improve equipment for explorers.
[18:10] Speaker 1: When Amunson later reached the South Pole, it was with
[18:13] Speaker 1: snow goggles and a wind deflecting tent he'd made from
[18:17] Speaker 1: designs that Cook suggested. When some of the crew on
[18:22] Speaker 1: the ice bound ship got scurvy, Cook cured them. He
[18:26] Speaker 1: had noticed that the Inuit never got scurvy, and he
[18:30] Speaker 1: guessed that might be because they ate fresh seal meat.
[18:34] Speaker 1: He insisted the sailors did too. He was right. After
[18:39] Speaker 1: months stuck in the ice, when they started to fear
[18:42] Speaker 1: that they might never get free. It was Cook who
[18:45] Speaker 1: came up with a plan cutting out blocks of ice
[18:49] Speaker 1: between the ship and the open water, so when the
[18:52] Speaker 1: ice moved, it might crack and form a channel. Seemed
[18:57] Speaker 1: like a mad idea at first, but it worked. It
[19:01] Speaker 1: was like a miracle. Amunson said of Cook, he, of
[19:06] Speaker 1: all the ship's company, was the one man of unfaltering courage,
[19:11] Speaker 1: unfailing hope, endless cheerfulness, and unwearied kindness. His ingenuity and
[19:18] Speaker 1: enterprise were boundless. So yes, if Frederick Cook said he'd
[19:25] Speaker 1: been to the North Pole, Roald Amundsen believed him. And
[19:30] Speaker 1: what of Cnud Rasmussen, the famous Danish explorer, the husband
[19:34] Speaker 1: of the beautiful woman Philip Gibbs had met on his
[19:37] Speaker 1: first night in Copenhagen. Knud was still in the north
[19:41] Speaker 1: doing exploring of his own. Gibbs bumped into Knud's wife,
[19:46] Speaker 1: Dagmar Rasmussen. She pulled out a long letter she had
[19:50] Speaker 1: just received. She let Gibbs copy part of it and
[19:53] Speaker 1: have it translated. My first feeling when I heard about
[19:58] Speaker 1: Dr Cook was an immeasurable disappointment and sorrow. Everyone who
[20:03] Speaker 1: knew Knud Rasmussen would have understood the young Dane was
[20:07] Speaker 1: downcast because he had long dreamed of being the first
[20:11] Speaker 1: man to reach the pole himself. Cook had taken that
[20:15] Speaker 1: place in the history books, or so Rasmusen assumed, because
[20:20] Speaker 1: he liked and trusted Cook too. But Gibbs didn't know
[20:24] Speaker 1: Nud Rasmussen and didn't understand what he meant. He just
[20:28] Speaker 1: thought it sounded vaguely negative. He reported that Rasmussen was
[20:33] Speaker 1: not supporting Cook. Gibbs was jumping to some wrong conclusions,
[20:39] Speaker 1: but he was also asking the right questions of the
[20:42] Speaker 1: right people, when no other journalist would. When the University
[20:47] Speaker 1: of Copenhagen announced it would give Cook an honorary degree,
[20:51] Speaker 1: other newspapers reported that Cook had shown his records to
[20:55] Speaker 1: the university's top astronomer, Gibbs sought the man out. I
[21:01] Speaker 1: hear you've seen Cook's records. What no Cook told me.
[21:06] Speaker 1: They're in a box in Greenland. So you haven't seen
[21:10] Speaker 1: any astronomical observations from Cook, not at all. And without
[21:16] Speaker 1: those observations, there's no way to be sure that Cook's
[21:19] Speaker 1: story is true. That's right, said the astronomer. By now,
[21:26] Speaker 1: Gibbs was ready to throw caution to the wind. His
[21:30] Speaker 1: reporting for the Chronicle was no longer inviting readers to
[21:34] Speaker 1: judge for themselves. He flat out accused Cook of fraud.
[21:39] Speaker 1: If Gibbs had called this wrong, Cook would surely sue
[21:43] Speaker 1: for libel. One distinguished fellow journalist was horrified, young man.
[21:50] Speaker 1: He said to Gibbs, you have not only wouned yourself,
[21:53] Speaker 1: which does not matter very much, but you have also
[21:57] Speaker 1: wouned the Daily Chronicle. The Danes, meanwhile, were embracing Cook uncritically.
[22:06] Speaker 1: The mayor of Copenhagen threw him a bank quick, the
[22:09] Speaker 1: King of Denmark invited him to dinner. With every negative
[22:14] Speaker 1: article Gibbs published in London, his notoriety in Copenhagen grew.
[22:20] Speaker 1: It must have been disconcerting for Gibbs reading articles about
[22:25] Speaker 1: himself in the Danish newspapers. Mister Gibbs were the only
[22:29] Speaker 1: words he understood. He asked someone to translate. Dagmar Rasmussen says,
[22:35] Speaker 1: you're wrong, Knud does believe Cook. Oh, And the explorer
[22:39] Speaker 1: Norman Hanson says you've insulted Cook's honor. That means he's
[22:43] Speaker 1: challenging you to a duel. A duel Gibbs had seen
[22:48] Speaker 1: Norman Hanson. He's six foot three in his socks. I'm
[22:52] Speaker 1: five foot six in my boots. Cautionary tales will be
[22:59] Speaker 1: back in a moment. We think of polarization as a
[23:12] Speaker 1: very modern problem, and in some ways it is. To
[23:16] Speaker 1: study after study finds politics in the US and Europe
[23:20] Speaker 1: going further to extremes. And it's not just opinions that
[23:24] Speaker 1: divide us, it's what we believed to be true. Think
[23:28] Speaker 1: of the first few months of the COVID pandemic, when
[23:32] Speaker 1: we faced so many entirely new questions. How much worse
[23:36] Speaker 1: was covid than flu? How well did masks work, did
[23:40] Speaker 1: the virus come from the market or the lab these
[23:44] Speaker 1: new vaccines, how safe were they. The best response to
[23:48] Speaker 1: all these questions was let's be guided by the evidence.
[23:53] Speaker 1: But for many people that was hard. They committed early
[23:57] Speaker 1: to one belief or another. We divided into tribes. It's
[24:03] Speaker 1: easy to blame social media. You state of view. It
[24:07] Speaker 1: brings you followers, clicks, maybe even advertising revenue. You stop
[24:12] Speaker 1: being objective and start telling your new followers what they
[24:15] Speaker 1: want to hear. But the polarization of the pole debate
[24:19] Speaker 1: in Copenhagen in nineteen o nine suggests the problem may
[24:23] Speaker 1: be older than we think. Just as with COVID, here
[24:27] Speaker 1: was a brand new question nobody had ever had to
[24:30] Speaker 1: think about before had Frederick Cook set foot on the
[24:34] Speaker 1: North Pole. And just as with COVID, the best response
[24:38] Speaker 1: was let's be guided by the evidence. But that was hard,
[24:43] Speaker 1: especially if the evidence was supposedly in a box in
[24:46] Speaker 1: Greenland and Cook wouldn't send it to the University of
[24:49] Speaker 1: Copenhagen for months. Still, let's be guided by the evidence
[24:54] Speaker 1: was the best response, and it was the one Philip
[24:57] Speaker 1: Gibbs started out with. He declared, as one of the
[25:01] Speaker 1: reporters of the world's history, I must be skeptical until
[25:05] Speaker 1: the facts are proven. Quite right, but Gibbs shifted quickly
[25:11] Speaker 1: from skepticism to cynicism. Why we can see the same
[25:18] Speaker 1: dynamic at work on Gibbs that we see in today's
[25:22] Speaker 1: social media world. Gibbs had an initial incentive to be opinionated.
[25:27] Speaker 1: It was risky, but it got him noticed. Once he
[25:30] Speaker 1: had committed to a view. It colored his judgment right
[25:34] Speaker 1: from the start, when he unfairly dismissed the explorer's well
[25:38] Speaker 1: informed opinions about the intelligence of the Inuit and the
[25:42] Speaker 1: advisability of facial hair in the Arctic. Skeptical until the
[25:48] Speaker 1: facts are proven, but it would take months for the
[25:52] Speaker 1: facts to be proven. Gibbs lasted only a couple of
[25:55] Speaker 1: days before he had abandoned healthy skepticism for mocking stone
[26:00] Speaker 1: cold certainty. His claim to have reached the North Pole
[26:06] Speaker 1: belongs to the realm of fairy tales. But just as
[26:10] Speaker 1: Gibbs rushed to extremes, so did Cook's supporters. Gibbs was
[26:16] Speaker 1: right to keep pointing out that Cook had arrived in
[26:18] Speaker 1: Copenhagen with no scientific observations to back up his story.
[26:24] Speaker 1: Why was the king inviting him to dinner, Why was
[26:27] Speaker 1: the university rushing to give him an honorary degree. Why
[26:31] Speaker 1: weren't they being skeptical until the facts were known? To
[26:36] Speaker 1: start with, Danes must have been flattered. Cook could have
[26:40] Speaker 1: chosen to go straight back home to America after all,
[26:44] Speaker 1: But there he was in Copenhagen, bringing the city the
[26:48] Speaker 1: attention of the world, and saying lovely things about how
[26:52] Speaker 1: the Danish had always supported Arctic explorers. Of course, they
[26:57] Speaker 1: wanted to believe Richard Evans, the author of The Explorer
[27:04] Speaker 1: and the journalist says the reaction of the Danes reminds
[27:07] Speaker 1: him of a line from the great psychologist Daniel Carneman.
[27:11] Speaker 1: When faced with a difficult question, we sometimes answer an
[27:15] Speaker 1: easier question without noticing the hard question. Had Cook really
[27:21] Speaker 1: been to the pole? The easier question? Did Cook seem nice?
[27:28] Speaker 1: But there's another reason Cook's supporters doubled down, As one
[27:32] Speaker 1: of them later explained, the attacks on him were both
[27:36] Speaker 1: indecent and ill founded. Isn't that how polarization works. Philip
[27:43] Speaker 1: Gibbs pushes further than the facts, yet strictly justify. Cook's
[27:47] Speaker 1: affronted friends push back harder than is justified too. The
[27:51] Speaker 1: cycle continues. The two sides get further and further apart.
[27:57] Speaker 1: In just five days, the world had divided into tribes
[28:02] Speaker 1: Cookites and anti Cookites. A handful of journalists held the
[28:08] Speaker 1: line that we should wait for Cook's evidence, but it
[28:11] Speaker 1: was hard to hold that line. The task of forming
[28:15] Speaker 1: a sane opinion, wrote The Times of London is more
[28:19] Speaker 1: than usually embarrassing. One thousand people attended Cook's honorary degree
[28:28] Speaker 1: ceremony at the University of Copenhagen. Royals the Great and
[28:33] Speaker 1: the Good of Danish science. In his acceptance speech, Cook
[28:38] Speaker 1: promised yet again to send the university his observations just
[28:42] Speaker 1: as soon as he could. Then he got emotional. I
[28:47] Speaker 1: can say no more, I can do no more. I'll
[28:50] Speaker 1: show you my hands, and then it was over. After
[28:55] Speaker 1: five days in Copenhagen, Cook set sail for home. Thousands
[29:01] Speaker 1: of people came to the harbor to wave him off.
[29:04] Speaker 1: A dignitary gave a farewell speech, We in Denmark believe
[29:08] Speaker 1: in you absolutely. As Philip Gibbs watched Frederick Cook's boat depart,
[29:15] Speaker 1: he had no idea if he'd ruined himself and the
[29:19] Speaker 1: Daily Chronicle where they're really compelling scientific observations in a
[29:24] Speaker 1: box in Greenland, that would confirm Cook's story. Gibbs could
[29:29] Speaker 1: only wait until Cook sent his papers to the expert
[29:32] Speaker 1: committee assembled by the University of Copenhagen. Gibbs turned from
[29:38] Speaker 1: the harbor and ran straight into the one man he
[29:42] Speaker 1: didn't want to see, the man who challenged him to
[29:45] Speaker 1: a duel, the six foot three explorer Norman Hanson. Gibbs
[29:51] Speaker 1: must have looked terrified, because Hanson roared with laughter and
[29:56] Speaker 1: held out his hand. We will fight with our pens,
[29:59] Speaker 1: he said. There was only one thing left for Gibbs
[30:04] Speaker 1: to do. He visited the office of the newspaper that
[30:07] Speaker 1: had published the challenge the duel, and gave them a
[30:10] Speaker 1: quote tell Norman Hanson that I am ready. He need
[30:16] Speaker 1: only name his weapon. The shy and retiring Gibbs had
[30:21] Speaker 1: found his confidence, but just in case Hanson might change
[30:25] Speaker 1: his mind, Gibbs got straight on the first boat back
[30:29] Speaker 1: for London. Three and a half months later, Frederick Cook
[30:38] Speaker 1: sent some papers to the University of Copenhagen. Expert committees
[30:43] Speaker 1: usually take their time to pour over evidence from explorers,
[30:48] Speaker 1: but after just four days word got around that the
[30:51] Speaker 1: verdict was ready. Danish journalists rushed to gather in a
[30:56] Speaker 1: high ceilinged wood paneled room at the university. In walked
[31:01] Speaker 1: a functionary carrying a pile of reports. He handed each
[31:06] Speaker 1: journalist a copy. They avid least arted to read. The
[31:11] Speaker 1: records submitted said the expert's report were completely valueless for
[31:16] Speaker 1: the determination of the question whether doctor Cook had reached
[31:19] Speaker 1: the North Pole? Right, what does that mean exactly? He
[31:25] Speaker 1: didn't get to the pole? He might have the journalists
[31:29] Speaker 1: seek out the experts and ask them to explain. Remember
[31:33] Speaker 1: the university's astronomer who told Philip Gibbs he needed to
[31:37] Speaker 1: see Cook's records to be sure of his story. Well
[31:41] Speaker 1: he's seen them now. There is not a single astronomical observation,
[31:47] Speaker 1: the astronomer tells the Danish journalists, just remarks on weather
[31:52] Speaker 1: and wind and ice and snow. That's not proof. Also
[31:58] Speaker 1: on the expert committee, the famous young Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen,
[32:03] Speaker 1: who'd initially assumed Cook was telling the Truthnud escaped such
[32:10] Speaker 1: a pathetic submission, he says, has probably never before been
[32:14] Speaker 1: submitted to a scientific society for investigation. I have completely
[32:19] Speaker 1: lost faith in his claim to be the discoverer of
[32:21] Speaker 1: the North Pole. Another expert on the committee likens Cook's
[32:26] Speaker 1: submission to a student handing in an answer without showing
[32:30] Speaker 1: his calculations. The professor, he says, would give the student
[32:34] Speaker 1: a zero, and we have done the same. The news
[32:41] Speaker 1: gets back to London. At the office of the Daily Chronicle,
[32:45] Speaker 1: Philip Gibbs breathes a sigh of relief. He knows things
[32:50] Speaker 1: might have turned out very differently. I took a big chance,
[32:55] Speaker 1: Gibbs later recalled, looking back on it, one which was
[32:59] Speaker 1: too dangerous and not quite justified. Gibbs's reporting on Frederick
[33:04] Speaker 1: Cook became a legend of the British news industry. Gibbs
[33:09] Speaker 1: became a well known war correspondent, a modestly successful novelist,
[33:14] Speaker 1: a campaigner for peace, and a knight of the realm.
[33:18] Speaker 1: Sir Philip Gibbs had gambled and won, and what of
[33:24] Speaker 1: Frederick Cook? He made some money on the lecture circuit.
[33:28] Speaker 1: While enough people still believed him, he checked into a
[33:31] Speaker 1: sanatorium with nervous exhaustion. He disappeared for months. He returned
[33:37] Speaker 1: to Copenhagen to give a lecture. It was interrupted by
[33:41] Speaker 1: a six foot three heckler. You scoundrel, shouted the explorer,
[33:46] Speaker 1: Norman Hanson. You betrayed the trust of the Danish people.
[33:52] Speaker 1: Cook moved to Texas and reinvented himself as an oil man.
[33:58] Speaker 1: His promises to investors never seemed to come good. He
[34:02] Speaker 1: was arrested and charged with fraud. I've done nothing wrong,
[34:07] Speaker 1: Cook told the police. To the Danes, they said. Cook
[34:12] Speaker 1: served seven years in prison. He was visited by his
[34:17] Speaker 1: loyal old friend Roald Amonson, who spoke to reporters afterwards.
[34:23] Speaker 1: Cook is a genius, said Amonson. The finest traveler I
[34:27] Speaker 1: ever saw. I still find his story plausible. Cook himself
[34:34] Speaker 1: never stopped making his case. I'm getting old. I want
[34:38] Speaker 1: you to believe that I told the truth. Our children's
[34:41] Speaker 1: children will give me a fair verdict. We're a generation
[34:46] Speaker 1: or two on from that. So did Frederick Cook reach
[34:51] Speaker 1: the North Pole? He never produced convincing evidence that he did,
[34:56] Speaker 1: but then nobody proved he didn't. He went somewhere for
[35:00] Speaker 1: months with his Inuit friends. He maintained that he had
[35:04] Speaker 1: proof in a box in Greenland, but the box never
[35:08] Speaker 1: got to America and never could be found. Did he
[35:12] Speaker 1: genuinely believe that he'd made the poll? Did he naively
[35:16] Speaker 1: expect to be trusted or did he know he was
[35:19] Speaker 1: bluffing and hoped to get away with a winning manner
[35:22] Speaker 1: and a gripping story. As Philip Gibbs wants wisely advised,
[35:29] Speaker 1: we must be skeptical until the facts are proven. The
[35:35] Speaker 1: facts aren't proven yet, perhaps they never will be. Thanks
[35:50] Speaker 1: to Richard Evans for giving us permission to base this
[35:53] Speaker 1: cautionary tale on his new book, The Explorer and the Journalist.
[35:58] Speaker 1: It's already available in the UK and elsewhere, and will
[36:02] Speaker 1: be published in the US in November twenty twenty three.
[36:08] Speaker 1: Cautionary Tale is written by me Tim Harford with Andrew Wright.
[36:12] Speaker 1: It's produced by Alice Fines with support from Edith Russlow.
[36:16] Speaker 1: The sound design and original music is the work of
[36:19] Speaker 1: Pascal Wise. Julia Barton edited the scripts. It features the
[36:24] Speaker 1: voice talents of Ben Crowe, Melanie Gushridge, Jemma Saunders and
[36:28] Speaker 1: Rufus Wright. The show wouldn't have been possible without the
[36:32] Speaker 1: work of Jacob Weisberg, Ryan Dilly, Greta Cohne, let Al Millard,
[36:37] Speaker 1: John Schnaz, Carlie mcgliori and Eric Sandler. Cautionary Tales is
[36:45] Speaker 1: a production of Pushkin Industries. It was recorded in Wardall
[36:49] Speaker 1: Studios in London by Tom Berry. If you like the show,
[36:52] Speaker 1: please remember to share, rate and review go on you
[36:56] Speaker 1: know it helps us and if you want to hear
[36:58] Speaker 1: the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin Plus on
[37:02] Speaker 1: the show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm,
[37:06] Speaker 1: slash plus

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