Johann Hari admits copying and pasting interview quotes

[littlebabyjesus]

He wasn't silent in that speech, though, was he?

Indeed, he even seemed to be trying to teach others the valuable lesson he'd learned from it. Kin cheek!

 

[audiotech]

The diazepam has probably kicked in big time now. He can expect suicidal thoughts, nightmares, paranoia, sensitivity to loud mouths, potential seizure and rage when he decides to come off them little fuckers.

 

[butchersapron]

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.

Look, we know that you're spiritual kin with hari, but can you show us what "honourable thing" he's done as regards this? He hasn't stepped down? He continued writing in for the Independent in fact.

 

[eoin_k]

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

The one thing holding me back from feeling some basic human sympathy for him at the moment is the thought of him gracing us with his opinions on newsnight in a few years time.

 

[eoin_k]

.

 

[audiotech]

Look, we know that you're spiritual kin with hari, but can you show us what "honourable thing" he's done as regards this? He hasn't stepped down? He continued writing in for the Independent in fact.

The poor fucker will be in a dark corner somewhere.

I've already said what I felt needed to be said and as I understand it he has now resigned.

Don't let me get in the way of this little witch-hunt any further.

 

[butchersapron]

As you understand it? No, you're wrong. What leads you to say that he's resigned? What is it about this thread that makes people post without bothering to read it?

 

[audiotech]

The bile that emanates from it?

If Hari hasn't resigned then he should.

 

[butchersapron]

I think it's laziness mixed in with ignorance and naivity myself.

 

[audiotech]

Yes, I'm 'lazy, naive and ignorant', whilst submitting a zillion documents I've written and preparing for the fight of my life. Do me a favour eh?

 

[eoin_k]

Presumably if he had resigned, the Independent wouldn't have bothered to suspend him.

 

[audiotech]

And you can stuff your sarcasm.

 

[killer b]

when i was training to be a journalist, i found myself falling into similar traps to hari - if you aren't brilliant at interviewing people & not very confident about it, it seems easier to take a bit from here, a bit from there to put your story together. although it ends up making more work in the end...

it's the reason i ended up deciding journalism wasn't really for me tbh. it's obviously not for him either.

 

[Corax]

If he's really had enough of it, he's quite capable of removing himself from the public eye. If he genuinely feels that way, he could retrain as anything he wanted and live a normal life doing 8+ hours of work each day for the kind of salary the rest of us get by on, without the perks that a life in the media bring with them. He's not interesting enough to be hounded to the end of his days; within a couple of years it would just be a bit of interesting background he could tell people as an ice-breaker at corporate team-building events lol.

He's a 32 year old Oxbridge graduate, it's not like he doesn't have any other options.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

when i was training to be a journalist, i found myself falling into similar traps to hari - if you aren't brilliant at interviewing people & not very confident about it, it seems easier to take a bit from here, a bit from there to put your story together. although it ends up making more work in the end...

it's the reason i ended up deciding journalism wasn't really for me tbh. it's obviously not for him either.

What - you felt the temptation to repeatedly distort, plagiarise and invent quotes over a period of years? Steady on.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Declaring himself "idiotic" covers it.

To be frank, his apology sounds more like "I'm sorry I was caught" than "I'm sorry I falsified and plagiarised".

 

[killer b]

What - you felt the temptation to repeatedly distort, plagiarise and invent quotes over a period of years? Steady on.

Well, no. No excuses... But I can see how a heady mixture of incompetence, stupidity & vanity got him where he is.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

People who get caught out deceiving people are often really, honestly upset about getting caught, particularly if they've built up a reputation (including assorted prizes) on the basis of what they've been bullshitting about that's now collapsing.

 

[ViolentPanda]

when i was training to be a journalist, i found myself falling into similar traps to hari - if you aren't brilliant at interviewing people & not very confident about it, it seems easier to take a bit from here, a bit from there to put your story together. although it ends up making more work in the end...

it's the reason i ended up deciding journalism wasn't really for me tbh. it's obviously not for him either.

Thing is, there's two ways to work it:

1) You do your research, and you attribute material to the sources you've used, or

2) You write your piece so that it gives an overwhelming impression that all the material in it was sourced via your interview.

Now, Hari may have a little excuse in that being a "star" journo, he was expected to churn out this stuff by the bucket-load, but he didn't have to take option 2, just as he didn't have to selectively reinterpret parts of actual interviews he conducted. He chose to do it, and many journos don't.

Obviously, when you were a cub, you were another potential Hari.

 

[killer b]

I was a shit journalist, tbf.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I was a shit journalist, tbf.

That doesn't stop most of them. There are an awful lot of shit journalists, sad to say.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Well, no. No excuses... But I can see how a heady mixture of incompetence, stupidity & vanity got him where he is.

Well, it's not like it's somehow entirely out of explicable human behaviour that somebody might do that sort of thing, no. It is still worthy of condemnation. I don't think I'm really taking the moral high ground, for instance, by saying that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done the same. You wouldn't either as you point out.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I was a shit journalist, tbf.

Me too. I was a slightly better sub, though.

E2A: Proper title at the time "editorial assistant". Basically asst to the sub ed and taking care of business when he was pissed and/or asleep.

 

[killer b]

Totally. I certainly wasn't trying to suggest we should let him off the hook.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

.

 

[killer b]

Oddly enough, I wasn't a bad sub either...

 

[lazyhack]

The poor fucker will be in a dark corner somewhere.

I've already said what I felt needed to be said and as I understand it he has now resigned.

Don't let me get in the way of this little witch-hunt any further.

He hasn't resigned, he has been suspended for two months while under investigation. Despite everything he refuses to resign. Sympathy for the devil here...

 

[lazyhack]

Now, Hari may have a little excuse in that being a "star" journo, he was expected to churn out this stuff by the bucket-load

Actually, as a star columnist Hari only had to write 2 pieces a week so had more than enough time to earn his generous wage with original and truthful work.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Actually, as a star columnist Hari only had to write 2 pieces a week so had more than enough time to earn his generous wage with original and truthful work.

In which case he's even less excuse for acting the cunt!

 

[audiotech]

To be frank, his apology sounds more like "I'm sorry I was caught" than "I'm sorry I falsified and plagiarised".

I thought differently, but there you go.