Johann Hari admits copying and pasting interview quotes

[sihhi]

This is what I cut from my post because it was too long and I have a weak connection.

http://www.johannhari.com/2006/09/15/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: William Wilberforce, John Halstead (the founder of the Harvard Medical School) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were all highly-functional heroin-heads.

There's no one called John Halstead. The reference must be William Halsted surgeon and head of John Hopkins. Do the examples mean anything I don't know. But It's totally dishonest to say it's "proven" heroin prescription is the best way to reduce homelessness.

Does every doctor agree that supplying of heroin leads to "normal. happy lives"? The College of GPs gave evidence against the extension of heroin prescription, the current head Claire Gerada said it was likely to become a way of making addicts for life. The RCN is split down the middle.

From a capitalist view:
Methadone: cheap, heroin: slightly more expensive but much better than methadone, proper programmes of rehabilitation+detoxification+employment+housing for all: really expensive

It's overblown and exaggerated.

He mentions the same person - Erin O'Mara editor of Black Poppy magazine - in two separate columns two years apart basically recycling that good example magzine editor who uses heroin at the same time. But each time the name appears as Erin O'Hara - yes that's the same (only) person used as an example of the success of heroin prescription but the wrong surname.

http://www.johannhari.com/2004/03/06/the-best-treatment-for-addiction-free-heroin


Prostitution once brothels are legalised and regulated.

Stripped of legal rights and driven underground, sex workers are turned into outlaws who cannot seek or expect protection from the police. In these circumstances, they get trapped in often abusive relationships with pimps because they have nobody else to turn to. Provide them with recourse to the law - in licensed brothels equipped with panic buttons, where working prostitutes can look out for each other and identify offenders - and the need for pimps disappears.

http://www.johannhari.com/2004/01/02/at-last-an-opportunity-to-legalise-prostitution

http://www.johannhari.com/2003/07/20/legalise-prostitution-now-

Brothels are legal in New Zealand, the Netherlands and Germany: you get two types of pimps one set run the licensed brothels (more expensive), another set control the unlicensed trade (cheaper). He knows this, I'm sure, but just doesn't mention it. It's just exaggeration.

None of this means I am against people being prescribed as much heroin as is needed or against repealing laws that criminalise soliciting.

It's Johann Hari's general dishonest approach that's the problem.

Another example: him trumpeting how correct it was to throw Galloway out of the Labour Party, should have been done sooner etc., even though he admits Tony Blair is guilty of the same crimes.

The truth is that, to all decent people, Galloway and his dwindling band of comrades were rotting in a political graveyard before any of these accusations emerged. We do not need allegations of financial crookedness; we already know that he is morally crooked. The evidence for his authoritarianism is clear (indeed, I had documented it at length in this column, and said that he should be expelled from the Labour Party long before the current scandal). He has said that he would describe himself as a Stalinist (death toll: 30 million) if it was not "making a rod for my own back". He describes the day the Soviet Union fell as "the worst day of my life". He supports the death penalty. He praised General Musharraf's coup in Pakistan, saying that "in poor third world countries like Pakistan, politics is too important to be left to petty squabbling politicians. Pakistan is always on the brink of breaking apart into its widely disparate components. Only the armed forces can really be counted on to hold such a country together ... Democracy is a means, not an end in itself." (I know Bush and Blair have also praised Musharraf; they too should be ashamed).

 

[sihhi]

Hari's website really is down. Can someone please post this on a blog where people will see it:

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...ern-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.

Hari's article with unsourced claims is on the paper website

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinio...raq-comes-from-western-defeatists-584995.html

.. nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.

.. the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.

.. on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts - exceeding the prewar average.

.. all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.

.. by October 1, Coalition forces had rehab-ed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than scheduled.

.. teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.

.. all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.

.. doctors salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.

.. pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.

.. the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq's children.

That's six unsourced claims in just one paragraph that all appear in that US right wing email.

 

[audiotech]

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

Dick.

 

[DrRingDing]

Remember him bleating that Oxbridge wasn't a bastion for the privileged?

 

[audiotech]

What do you have in mind to "revenge" that idiocy?

 

[King Biscuit Time]

After talking to a friend of Hari, I believe it's time to cut him a bit of slack. He seems to be in a bad way.

.

 

[Idris2002]

Well, he should have thought of that before.

 

[lazyhack]

If Damian Thompson is saying that then he must have heard something pretty serious, I am aware he was onto a lead that could bring down Kelner too, potentially.

 

[Pickman's model]

After talking to a friend of Hari, I believe it's time to cut him a bit of slack. He seems to be in a bad way.

good

 

[redsquirrel]

.

boo fucking hoo

 

[lazyhack]

So, apparently Hari is on the brink of suicide.

 

[TruXta]

Jesus.... I for one would rather the guy grew a pair, owned up to his shenanigans and tried to put things right again in whatever capacity he might. Suicide over this? Selfish fucking twat.

 

[Random]

Jesus.... I for one would rather the guy grew a pair, owned up to his shenanigans and tried to put things right again in whatever capacity he might. Suicide over this? Selfish fucking twat.

Maybe he's just making a move for victim staus. Everyone ganged up on me, I feel awful, etc. He must feel fairly terrible and sorry for himself, given the way he's gotten used to being important and all.

 

[TruXta]

Maybe he's just making a move for victim staus. Everyone ganged up on me, I feel awful, etc. He must feel fairly terrible and sorry for himself, given the way he's gotten used to being important and all.

Of course he is, whether he admits to it or not. Fucking pathetic.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Is suicide always a selfish act?

 

[TruXta]

Is suicide always a selfish act?

Oh dear.... FWIW despite his many grave failings as a professional (and possibly as a person) I'd hate to see him off himself over this.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Latest Private Eye puts the boot in with quite a few accounts of Hari making stuff up. Doesn't look good. He could even get his Orwell Award revoked - the irony being pretty obvious.

 

[TruXta]

He should do the honourable thing - own up to any and all bullshit, take a looooong sabbatical and figure out what to do next.

 

[revlon]

Latest Private Eye puts the boot in with quite a few accounts of Hari making stuff up. Doesn't look good. He could even get his Orwell Award revoked - the irony being pretty obvious.

orwell also looked like a fat lesbian?

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

 

[audiotech]

He should do the honourable thing - own up to any and all bullshit, take a looooong sabbatical and figure out what to do next.

He already did that in that vid I posted. "I did something wrong and idiotic" he said. Pretty clear.

 

[butchersapron]

Did he fuck. What does 'any and all' mean? It doesn't mean offer a mealy mouthed attack on the people who caught your lies out posed as some sort of apology for the stuff he'd been caught for at that point.

 

[audiotech]

Mr angry obviously has a different opinion.

I see you've edited your post to add more drivel.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

That does seem to be a very strange apology, though. 'I've learned a valuable lesson,' he says. So did he not understand before that his plagiarism and misrepresentation were wrong? He doesn't seem like much of an intellectual, if so. He apparently needed to hear what Chomsky had to say about the Iraq war to realise he was wrong about that too. Seems like a bit of a fool to me.

 

[audiotech]

Declaring himself "idiotic" covers it.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

When someone admits they are wrong, imo you have no choice but to forgive them. However, he still clearly thinks of himself as a person to be listened to. I agree with TruXta on that - a period of silence from him would be appropriate now.

 

[butchersapron]

What about when someone tries to cover up what it was they got wrong and the extent of having got things wrong (as well as a host of other stuff) whilst offering that line?

The truly shocking thing about that video was the wild applause he received as he walked out - treated like a hero.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

What about when someone tries to cover up what it was they got wrong and the extent of having got things wrong (as well as a host of other stuff) whilst offering that line?

Has he done that? If so, clearly his apology is worthless. He is merely saying that he is sorry he was caught.

tbh he's in a hard place in terms of his future career. Admitting his guilt but trying to pretend he didn't think he was doing wrong shows him up as a complete idiot. Admitting that he knew full-well that what he was doing was wrong leaves him with little choice but to resign any position he has.

 

[butchersapron]

Yes he has done that in his written apology an din that video. Since then stuff has come out over and over and over, it seemed to be almost daily in the week after that video was posted - not to mention conspiring with his then editor to lie about no one ever complaining about his work.

 

[audiotech]

Demanding that he do the "honourable thing" and now it's moved to stfu, Well, according to others on this thread his websites down, so that's being pretty "silent" IMHO.