Merged Arday life and death

[Nessie]

People reported on a major scandal, where a plagiarist and fabulist was elevated to high rank by a prestigious university, clearly without consideration for the lack of qualifications and surfeit of fakery in his CV.

That's the "pile on" you keep referring to. Legitimate reporting of a real news story. There is no moral principle that reporters should refrain from reporting a story, for fear of a "pile on". Stop trying to implicate the press in this.

Arday took his life because he chose to take his life. This choice he made because apparently he couldn't cope with being found out. That's his business.

The pile on was every single part of the press, from nationals, to local news, to social media commentators (most of whom are click-baiters) to all the news channels, along with huge public comment and former students. He was apparently getting hundreds of approaches for comment and interviews. That is the definition of a pile on.

 

[jimbob]

The pile on was every single part of the press, from nationals, to local news, to social media commentators (most of whom are click-baiters) to all the news channels, along with huge public comment and former students. He was apparently getting hundreds of approaches for comment and interviews. That is the definition of a pile on.

Dominated by the Telegraph, Times , and Mail.

Also a lot by the Spectator which obviously carries fewer stories per week than daily news outlets, so quite significant.

Also worth comparing how Brendan O'Neill* responded to the "Hounding" of Nonce Andrew.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2088601029583515868

*I guess it's consistent with the other Spiked writer, Claire Fox and her support for child pornography.

 

[theprestige]

The pile on was every single part of the press, from nationals, to local news, to social media commentators (most of whom are click-baiters) to all the news channels, along with huge public comment and former students. He was apparently getting hundreds of approaches for comment and interviews. That is the definition of a pile on.

That's the definition of reporting a news story. What were people supposed to do? Not report the news? Not seek an interview or even a comment?

Arday was apparently quite happy to be the center of media attention when Cambridge was still calling him "an exceptional scholar of race, inequality and education" and saying, "[h]e will contribute significantly to Cambridge's research in this area". At the time, he even told the Guardian that he hoped his new position would give him the fame and clout to advance his agenda on a global scale. It's clear he had no problem with media attention, as long as it was reporting his lies instead of the truth.

Jason Arday - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

You're really in here arguing that we shouldn't report on fraud and deception at the highest levels of academia, for fear of upsetting the fraudsters.

You know who else committed suicide because the pile on got to be too much?

 

[Nessie]

That's the definition of reporting a news story. What were people supposed to do? Not report the news? Not seek an interview or even a comment?

Arday was apparently quite happy to be the center of media attention when Cambridge was still calling him "an exceptional scholar of race, inequality and education" and saying, "[h]e will contribute significantly to Cambridge's research in this area". At the time, he even told the Guardian that he hoped his new position would give him the fame and clout to advance his agenda on a global scale. It's clear he had no problem with media attention, as long as it was reporting his lies instead of the truth.

Jason Arday - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

You're really in here arguing that we shouldn't report on fraud and deception at the highest levels of academia, for fear of upsetting the fraudsters.

You know who else committed suicide because the pile on got to be too much?

You know what going viral and pile ons mean. You also know that you are misrepresenting me, when you suggest that I have argued fraud should not be reported on, when all I have done is argue against pile ons. Most news stories are covered for a few hours, by some media outlets. This was not a significant story, but it got coverage that a war or huge disaster would normally get.

I say, that especially when evidence emerges that the subject of a news story is suffering from mental health issues, the media should at least limit their interaction with that person and others should go quiet, rather than pile on. That does not mean the end any journalistic investigation. There are numerous examples of people, from celebrities to general members of the public, who have killed themselves after they became the news everyone wanted to read about.

 

[theprestige]

You know what going viral and pile ons mean. You also know that you are misrepresenting me, when you suggest that I have argued fraud should not be reported on, when all I have done is argue against pile ons. Most news stories are covered for a few hours, by some media outlets. This was not a significant story, but it got coverage that a war or huge disaster would normally get.

It was absolutely a significant story. It still is. There's lots more people at Cambridge who deserve the same level of "viral" and "pile on", for their roles in the Arday debacle.

I say, that especially when evidence emerges that the subject of a news story is suffering from mental health issues, the media should at least limit their interaction with that person and others should go quiet, rather than pile on. That does not mean the end any journalistic investigation. There are numerous examples of people, from celebrities to general members of the public, who have killed themselves after they became the news everyone wanted to read about.

"The media" isn't a monolithic organization. It's just anyone who wants to report on a topic.

Also, what evidence? A cop took it upon themselves to try to silence the press by pretending the authority to diagnose a public figure. That's not evidence of mental health issues. That's evidence of a police officer trying to manipulate the press.

 

[dirtywick]

oh, how fun. it's a cancel culture switcheroo

 

[Nessie]

It was absolutely a significant story. It still is. There's lots more people at Cambridge who deserve the same level of "viral" and "pile on", for their roles in the Arday debacle.


"The media" isn't a monolithic organization. It's just anyone who wants to report on a topic.

Also, what evidence? A cop took it upon themselves to try to silence the press by pretending the authority to diagnose a public figure. That's not evidence of mental health issues. That's evidence of a police officer trying to manipulate the press.

No one deserves to be hounded by the media and press standards (IPSO) do not allow the mainstream to do that. But that is now impossible enforce due to all the sources that call themselves media. Piles ons are fun for bullies, when they are not the subject and too many people have died because of them.

You are clearly a lover of conspiracies if you think that cop was actively trying to manipulate the press. The evidence is he was correct, that Arday had mental health issues, as he killed himself.

 

[theprestige]

oh, how fun. it's a cancel culture switcheroo

I'm just saying you've picked a weird free speech hill to die on. It's not like this was an innocent person whose life was ruined by misleading journalism. It's not someone whose minor peccadillo was manufactured into a major scandal, out of all proportion to its actual wrongness.

This is a person who actually did the newsworthy plagiarism and fantasism that was being reported on.

 

[jeremyp]

I'm just saying you've picked a weird free speech hill to die on. It's not like this was an innocent person whose life was ruined by misleading journalism. It's not someone whose minor peccadillo was manufactured into a major scandal, out of all proportion to its actual wrongness.

This is a person who actually did the newsworthy plagiarism and fantasism that was being reported on.

Well he's dead now. So I hope you're happy.

 

[smartcooky]

Arday was apparently quite happy to be the center of media attention when Cambridge was still calling him "an exceptional scholar of race, inequality and education" and saying, "[h]e will contribute significantly to Cambridge's research in this area". At the time, he even told the Guardian that he hoped his new position would give him the fame and clout to advance his agenda on a global scale. It's clear he had no problem with media attention, as long as it was reporting his lies instead of the truth.

QFT

You know who else committed suicide because the pile on got to be too much?

Umm, was he an Austrian with a funny little moustache?

 

[smartcooky]

You know what going viral and pile ons mean. You also know that you are misrepresenting me, when you suggest that I have argued fraud should not be reported on, when all I have done is argue against pile ons.

Frauds should be piled on.

Bernie Madoff was piled on, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were piled on, Elizabeth Holmes was absolutely piled on, primarily because she was a woman (most people can't even tell you who her business partner was) ... Sam Bankman-Fried was piled on for over 18 months in one of the greatest media frenzies you'll ever see, - his name was hardly ever out of the headline over that time.

Most news stories are covered for a few hours, by some media outlets. This was not a significant story, but it got coverage that a war or huge disaster would normally get.

When one of the most prestigious academic insitutions in the world completely ◊◊◊◊◊ up and is caught hiring a fraud and serial liar as a professor, that tends to make the news, especially when that institution holds itself up as a paragon of virtuous DEI.

I say, that especially when evidence emerges that the subject of a news story is suffering from mental health issues, the media should at least limit their interaction with that person and others should go quiet, rather than pile on.

I say bull-◊◊◊◊ to that. Playing the mental health card is a ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ insult to people with mental health issues. Its no different to playing the race card.

There are millions of people with mental health issues. They didn't lie and cheat their way to a degree and tenure at a university.

This man was a liar, a cheat and a fraud, and HE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING, and he could face the music when he got caught.... and where was his family in all this? They MUST have known the outragous claims he was making were false.

That does not mean the end any journalistic investigation. There are numerous examples of people, from celebrities to general members of the public, who have killed themselves after they became the news everyone wanted to read about.

If you're not going full on as a journalist or reporter when investigating a fraud then you're not doing your job. If I was newspaper editor, and one of my reporters backed off a story because of the subject's mental health, I'd fire him for incompetence.

 

[smartcooky]

Well he's dead now. So I hope you're happy.

Pathetic emotionalism!

No one is happy that he's dead, but we're not losing any sleep over it either.

No-one made him lie and cheat. No-one forced him to commit fraud... he did all that all by himself. Jason Arday chose his own path, and that path led him to where he ended up. I feel sorry for him, and I can do so without defending his perfidy.

 

[Trausti]

The Arday matter has nothing to do with free speech. The poor guy was constantly lied to about his abilities for DEI. His fabrications never investigated because of DEI. Then when someone pointed out that the emperor has no clothes, he must of realized that all those people who showered him with praise were just patronizing; condescending. They never thought he was actually smart. That's gotta make a guy feel like crap.

 

[Trausti]

Well he's dead now. So I hope you're happy.

The wrong lesson to learn here is that a person should be shielded from criticism because of their race, sex, or other diversity characteristic.

 

[theprestige]

Well he's dead now. So I hope you're happy.

A very weird hill to die on.

 

[dann]

Dominated by the Telegraph, Times , and Mail.
Also a lot by the Spectator which obviously carries fewer stories per week than daily news outlets, so quite significant.
Also worth comparing how Brendan O'Neill* responded to the "Hounding" of Nonce Andrew.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2088601029583515868

*I guess it's consistent with the other Spiked writer, Claire Fox and her support for child pornography.

On X, it appears to have been this guy, Nathan Cofnas (Wikipedia):

Gregory Kohn on bsky, Aug 15, 2026
In the wake of Arday's death, Nathan Cofnas (who led the X mob against him) states his motivation. Beyond whistleblowing, he states that after a 'revolution' removes professors like Arday, it will open opportunities for him to become 'head of the department of eugenics and race science at Harvard'.

With a video, 1:50 min.

"... I'm still waiting for the revolution to happen, and then I'll get another job. After the revolution, I'll be the, you know, head of the department of eugenics and race science at Harvard."

I'm not sure which revolution the smug racist is talking about, but I suspect it might be the incel revolution.

 

[Nessie]

The Arday matter has nothing to do with free speech. The poor guy was constantly lied to about his abilities for DEI. His fabrications never investigated because of DEI. Then when someone pointed out that the emperor has no clothes, he must of realized that all those people who showered him with praise were just patronizing; condescending. They never thought he was actually smart. That's gotta make a guy feel like crap.

It became about free speech when a cop asked a journalist to leave him alone, because of concerns over his mental health. The internet and this forum then split into those who claim nothing can come in the way of free speech, even mental health that leads to suicide and those who say that we need to be more considerate. I am on the considerate side. If journalists had stopped contacting Ardey, that would not stop them from gathering information for the story. They can still interview friends, colleagues and students and then report Ardey is not available for comment, due to concerns over his mental health. They still have their story and Ardey is still alive.

 

[Nessie]

The right to freedom of speech, should include the right to silence. If someone does not want to comment to the press, the press should leave them alone. There are press standards about the number of approaches journalists can make to someone, for comment.

There was a huge story in Scotland in the 1990s, about a 30 year old male, Brian MacKinnon, who having failed to get into a university course, managed to blag his way back into a school, as a pupil, to resit his exams. I did a media course at the Scottish Police College and a journalist spoke about that story. He said that each newsgroup were allowed to go to his door once, to either speak to him or leave him a letter requesting an interview. Normally that would include how much they were willing to pay and apparently, unusually, MacKinnon chose to go with the newspaper that said they would not pay him anything, but they would let him write his own version of events and publish that. The journalist said that situation had arisen because of successful court cases and press complaints about press intrusion and harassment.

It appears that nowadays, with the huge rise in what counts as media, such standards have gone and the press can hound someone and force them by basically bullying them, into providing comment. With that, has to come responsibility.

As soon as Ardey sent a lawyers letter and asked the police to ask journalists to leave him alone, I say they should have respected that. Any investigator, police, journalists or otherwise, knows how to continue investigating when the subject clams up and refuses to speak.

 

[Darat]

I don't think there are any free speech issues raised by his death or before.

 

[smartcooky]

It became about free speech when a cop asked a journalist to leave him alone, because of concerns over his mental health. The internet and this forum then split into those who claim nothing can come in the way of free speech, even mental health that leads to suicide and those who say that we need to be more considerate. I am on the considerate side. If journalists had stopped contacting Ardey, that would not stop them from gathering information for the story. They can still interview friends, colleagues and students and then report Ardey is not available for comment, due to concerns over his mental health. They still have their story and Ardey is still alive.

You're arguing that Mental heath claims ought to be a catch-all to escape accountability. Sorry, that doesn't wash with me.