Johann Hari admits copying and pasting interview quotes

[audiotech]

The Sun and NOTW journalists using anonymous sources?

 

[phildwyer]

Leroy Jones...?

 

[butchersapron]

The Sun and NOTW journalists using anonymous sources?

That's what journalists are supposed to do.

 

[manny-p]

http://www.johannhari.com/2004/04/1...ns-who-appease-them-have-blood-on-their-hands

30,000 people killed in 2004 in Colombian civil conflict, where does the number come from? That's 82 people being killed every day.

I think its about40,000 people killed from when the civil war started till 2004. Still the daily death rate including civil war related killings is pretty shocking.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

Later that night, as he thanked me for the best birthday present he had ever received, I explained I was going to have his ass tattooed. `Property of Leroy Jones. Access strictly forbidden except to owner.' I had it done a week later. You might see us around, my boy and me. I'm the one with the sharp suit and the big dick. He's the one with the tight ass, staring at his brother with silent love, ready at a moment's order to drop to his knees or to part his ass cheeks for his boss. If you see us, come say hi and get your wallet ready. I have lots of fit, prime boys you can buy -- and one very special one you can't

 

[audiotech]

That's what journalists are supposed to do.

I was referring to the anonymous sources that don't exist and used as a ruse to tell porkies.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Andrew Gilligan accuses Hari of journalistic impropriety!

 

[manny-p]

Andrew Gilligan accuses Hari of journalistic impropriety!

Lol@“papier-mâché Muslim.”

 

[ericjarvis]

Andrew Gilligan accuses Hari of journalistic impropriety!

And Andrew Gilligan knows ALL about journalistic impropriety.

 

[eoin_k]

[derail]
To my shame I once helped prevent an anarchist mob from giving Gilligan a well deserved hiding.
[/derail]

 

[frogwoman]

penny (or a mate of hers) appears to be accusing Brian Whelan of libel here:

http://twitter.com/#!/brianwhelanhack

 

[sihhi]

[derail]
To my shame I once helped prevent an anarchist mob from giving Gilligan a well deserved hiding.
[/derail]

Andy 'I'm here as a supporter not a tabloid journalist' Gilligan at the 2005 Glasgow anti-G8 protests?

More Johann Hari

1.

The only proven way to slash homelessness: heroin prescription

Sixty percent of the homeless Londoners you toss a few pennies at are addicted to heroin after a childhood of being ignored, beaten or raped. The evidence shows the only way to lift them out of the chaos of scrambling for their next fix – the only way for them to settle away from the streets – is to provide it, safely and securely, in a doctor’s surgery. Heroin is not like, say, crack. Every doctor agrees that once a heroin addict is given a legal, safe supply, they will regulate their use and live normal, happy lives...

No housing please, just heroin.

2.

Legalise prostitution now.

Brett once told me, "When I was seventeen and I
dropped out of school I went to work in a call centre.
It was the worst three months of my life. I was
stressed, miserable, constantly being told what to do,
running around all the time and I never had any money.
Then I started doing rent, and suddenly, when I was
working just one or two hours a week, I was earning a fortune.
I could buy nice clothes, give money to my mum, and chill out.
And I get treated with far more respect by my clients
than I ever was in that call centre." The only real
problem people like him face is being ripped off by
places like the brothel I mentioned. This form of
exploitation can be easily dealt with through
legalisation, regulation and unionisation.

legalisation, regulation and unionisation ... like in call centres where no one is ever "stressed, miserable, constantly being told what to do"


3. He hates Eric Hobsbawm not because of his pro-Kinnock pro-SDP-Labour coalition new realism, but because he is "an unapologetic defender of Stalinism".

He [Eric Hobsbawm] is the David Irvine [sic] of the left. Why do so many decent people associate themselves with him? I can only conclude that we have not seriously thought about the victims of the tyranny he defends.

I have been fretting about this recently because the new movie The Motorcycle Diaries is reviving another Stalinist icon. Che Guevara was sexy and, in some ways, idealistic; he was also a defender of Joseph Stalin and mass murder. On several occasions, he actually prostrated himself before portraits of Stalin while making political pledges. He advocated "relentless hatred of the enemy that [should] impel us over and beyond the natural limitations of man and transform us into effective, violent, selective, and cold killing machines".

That's a quote from what Che wrote (whilst active in Bolivia) about what new recruits need to become good guerrilla fighters in a short space of time to ease the burden on Vietnam. Plus severe ignorance about Guatemala and Che Guevara.

Is this a man to celebrate? Did Andy Gilchrist - the smart, decent leader of the Fire Brigades Union who I've picked as a random example - think about all those innocent people as he hung a picture of Che in his office? Yes, Che was fighting against heinous right-wing forces, not least in Guatemala, where the US was backing a far-right coup on behalf of a big corporation, the United Fruit Company. But those forces had to be resisted with left-wing democracy - not a twin totalitarianism of the left.

Attacking Andy Gilchrist 'as a random example' - while the dispute was still live. Hmm...
Che was a visitor in Guatemala he never fought anyone there he escaped when the crackdown started going beyond a 'normal' coup and thousands of people were being rounded up. Those right-wing forces were being resisted with "left-wing democracy" from 1950-1954 in Guatemala, until the coup. People were following Johann Hari's advice in the early 1950s and it meant they were getting tortured and killed.

4. Strong hatred of socialised healthcare (see earlier post)

We have nationalised the elderly, because we are too busy to care for them.

The real alternative to the ongoing misery of care homes is radical. We must shift care of the elderly from depersonalised care homes back on to the extended family. In Britain today we have nationalised our old people, handing them over to the Government so we can get on with our terribly busy lives. But the Government does not care for the old any better than it provides for children in care; governments should not be in the business of looking after people directly through institutions, because it always ends in disaster.

At the moment, we hand pounds 279 a week on average to a care home for each elderly person. Wouldn't it be far better spent not by the state but by families caring for their own relatives? My family and I would look after my gran, I suspect, far better than nurses who don't know her - so hand us the money to make it possible and we'll do the job, with the help of a hired nurse. This would reverse the existing ratios: not six elderly people per carer, but rather four or five carers (who happen to be family members) per elderly person. The numbers problem is solved in a flash, for all but the most incapacitated elderly. Those old people without families could be "adopted". This would transform the system without spending an extra penny.
Such a shift would require, of course, a massive cultural change. It requires sacrifice, a word which is deeply out of fashion...

blah blah blah the family will solve all our problems...

5. I think I have another cut'n'paste section by Johann Hari culled from US right-wing email circulars

See here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/combatend.asp

It features all the elements that Hari has listed in this October 2003 article,
http://johannhari.com/2003/10/29/the-real-threat-to-iraqis-is-coming-now-from-western-defeatists
except it states Iraqi teachers earn up to 25 times pre-invasion salaries Hari has modified this to make it only 15 times.

The real picture, away from the frantic TV cameras, is that Iraq is getting steadily better by the day. Iraqi teachers today are earning between 12 and 15 times their Saddam-era salaries, and almost every primary and secondary school is now open. Doctors' salaries have octupled, and 22 million vaccination doses have been given to Iraqi children. The Kurds have never been happier or safer (they have, for over a decade now, been living in a thriving democracy on the land clawed back from Saddam in the first Gulf War, but they wanted the threat of Saddam removed forever). All of Iraq's 240 hospitals and 400 courts are open and in business; 40,000 police are on duty.

Outright lies about salaries for doctors and teachers. I suspect dishonesty about the vaccination doses - the whole population in Iraq's borders at 2003 was estimated at 25 million, not to mention conflating the removal of the Oil-For-Food sanctions regime (which denied certain medicines) with Western invasion.

6. Bizarrely fighting 100-years-ago law on incest. No sibling 'consensual incest' case has been prosecuted under the 2004 law. The 1908 law doesn't exist any more and real-life application of incest laws have also changed.

He has drawn attention to the "unjust" 1909 case of R v Ball, where a seemingly happy brother-sister couple who had been living as man and wife were "outed" and thrown into prison. He describes them as "harmless and respectable".

We should, however, be wary of damning incest on these grounds alone. To prohibit two people from having sex because their offspring may be "defective" or "inferior" is to adopt the standpoint of a eugenicist. Indeed, Dr Sean Gabb has clearly shown that the impetus behind the 1908 Punishment of Incest Act was just that: the proponents of the act were exactly the same figures who advocated the "sterilisation" of the "feeble-minded". If we prohibit incest on the grounds that it risks producing "defective" children, we must also prohibit reproduction by haemophiliacs and the carriers of a host of other "defects".

In any case, we must acknowledge that, with the rise of contraception, we have succeeded in separating sex from reproduction. Another unashamed participant in incest discovered in a chatroom, "daddysgirl", insisted: "We would never have a baby, it would be all screwed up and wrong. I use the coil." So has a window opened for "safe" incest? And if so, is our visceral disgust just a remnant from a vanishing age?

http://johannhari.com/2002/01/09/forbidden-love

Does anyone care anymore is it worth carrying on? Please tell me.

 

[TruXta]

Can't see what's so wrong about the first two points - altho his arguments for them are pretty shite. Yes, legalising or decriminalising heroin would help homeless junkies a lot. Yes, legalising prostitution is a good idea.

 

[Corax]

Agreed. I can't see anything at all wrong with the heroin angle, and the prostitution argument certainly isn't unreasonable.

 

[ericjarvis]

Can't see what's so wrong about the first two points - altho his arguments for them are pretty shite. Yes, legalising or decriminalising heroin would help homeless junkies a lot. Yes, legalising prostitution is a good idea.

The problem with the first one is that it is factually incorrect. According to Homeless Link using local authority stats, 33% of rough sleepers have drug problems. That's any drug not just heroin. He's basically just made up a figure out of thin air. Typical of the political establishment "left", come up with any reason for people being homeless other than there being a shortage of affordable housing. Even if they have to lie to do it.

That's because the solution to homelessness is unpalatable to anyone who wants to play the current "political game". It means creating more affordable housing, which will cause house prices to stop rising or even drop. That would hurt the sort of aspirant middle class mortgage slaves that all the political parties target. So you aren't allowed to point out that the ONLY way to create an inflationary housing market is to have a shortage of affordable housing.

 

[TruXta]

The problem with the first one is that it is factually incorrect. According to Homeless Link using local authority stats, 33% of rough sleepers have drug problems. That's any drug not just heroin. He's basically just made up a figure out of thin air. Typical of the political establishment "left", come up with any reason for people being homeless other than there being a shortage of affordable housing. Even if they have to lie to do it.

That's because the solution to homelessness is unpalatable to anyone who wants to play the current "political game". It means creating more affordable housing, which will cause house prices to stop rising or even drop. That would hurt the sort of aspirant middle class mortgage slaves that all the political parties target. So you aren't allowed to point out that the ONLY way to create an inflationary housing market is to have a shortage of affordable housing.

Can't say I disagree with much of that. I did say that his arguments were shit, but that the outcomes - legalising heroin (and other drugs) and prostitution - were sound. Even a broken clock and so on.

 

[revol68]

No demands, kill Johann Hari everyday!

 

[ericjarvis]

[derail]
To my shame I once helped prevent an anarchist mob from giving Gilligan a well deserved hiding.
[/derail]

Hang your head in shame.

My contribution to the whole Hutton thingy was casting Susan Watts in the first play I directed at college. I have never met Gilligan, thank God.

 

[phildwyer]

No demands, kill Johann Hari everyday!

I have to say I'm not sure why everyone hates him quite so much. Obviously he's silly and annoying, but surely less bad than the overt right wing. Reminds me of the response to George Galloway around here. Or is it just that everyone hates anyone who has anything to do with the mainstream media or politics?

 

[maldwyn]

No demands, kill Johann Hari everyday!

What I've found amusing about this thread is the way some posters didn't mind who they quoted/referenced just put the to boot in just one more time.

 

[butchersapron]

Why did that amuse you malders? Please say who you mean and where.

 

[Athos]

I have to say I'm not sure why everyone hates him quite so much. Obviously he's silly and annoying, but surely less bad than the overt right wing. Reminds me of the response to George Galloway around here. Or is it just that everyone hates anyone who has anything to do with the mainstream media or politics?

What people hate is when liberals appoint themselves as spokespeople for the left. He's not of the left, and he certainly doesn't speak for me.

 

[revlon]

someone hack his website. icing on the cake.

 

[phildwyer]

What people hate is when liberals appoint themselves as spokespeople for the left. He's not of the left, and he certainly doesn't speak for me.

But did he ever appoint himself as such?

 

[ViolentPanda]

Can't see what's so wrong about the first two points - altho his arguments for them are pretty shite. Yes, legalising or decriminalising heroin would help homeless junkies a lot. Yes, legalising prostitution is a good idea.

The problem is that it isn't, despite what Hari says, as simple as prescribing heroin. Many of those homeless addicts will have physical and psychological issues that also need treatment before then can "live normal, happy lives...".

 

[TruXta]

The problem is that it isn't, despite what Hari says, as simple as prescribing heroin. Many of those homeless addicts will have physical and psychological issues that also need treatment before then can "live normal, happy lives...".

Agreed. But taking that bit out of the equation would help junkies a lot. That's what you spend your time on after all - chasing the money for the next hit.

 

[butchersapron]

Hari seems to have taken his site down.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Ooops:

Johann Hari 'invented quotes' in report from Central African Republic, says charity that took him there

In 2007, a charity took Johann Hari, the Independent’s star columnist and plagiarist, to the Central African Republic. His highly coloured report – one of the articles for which he won the Orwell prize – horrified the charity so much that it complained to Simon Kelner, the editor of the Independent, and organisers of the prize. Nothing happened, because Hari was the darling of liberal England and, hey, what are a few dodgy quotes between friends?

The allegations appear in today’s issue of Private Eye, but I should make clear that I knew about them independently. Like the Eye, I shall protect the identity of the charity, because its aid workers could be put at risk if it is connected to Hari’s fanciful article.

Here are the allegations.

Hari’s heart-rending account of life in Birao, in the CAR, “appalled” the charity staff when it appeared in 2007. You can read it here. According to the Eye:

Hari did not hire a translator, instead browbeating a charity worker into translating for him. He promised to give her his notes when they returned so she could file her own report on the war, and then broke his word. He continued to hold on to the notes even after she complained to Simon Kelner, the Independent’s editor. “The reason for this became clear when his article came out, as most of the content differed from what interviewees told us,” the aid worker told us. Hari “completely exaggerated the extent of destruction in Birao”. He “completely invented quotes, in particular those of the French soldiers”. In one gruesome vignette, Hari had French soldiers telling a piteous story of how “children would bring us the severed heads of their parents and scream for help, but our orders were not to help them”. “They did not say this. I know because I was there and I did the translating for them.”

There are many other allegations against Hari in the magazine, and others all over the internet. It’s becoming clearer by the day that this man was not guilty of cutting a few naughty corners, as Simon Kelner, Peter Preston, Polly Toynbee etc have pathetically claimed, but bears more than a passing resemblance to the New York Times’s Jayson Blair.

Hari has not been replying to any emails since these stories started breaking. I will update if he has anything to say.

From the Telegraph.

Bit awkward for Simon 'Nobody Complained' Kelner, too.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

Hari suicide watch.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Hari suicide watch.

Now that's a rolling news digital TV channel we can all get behind.