Former Cambridge professor Jason Arday found dead
The problem can be summed up with one question: how many people who can name Jason Arday can name the plagiarising professor at the same institution who is still in post? How many people can name the VC criticised by name in an employment tribunal this week?
Will Cooling231Or even name another currently practising academic in the field of sociology
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ28How many know about the process under which Cofnas was hired?
Dan Davies27I can name one prominent academic who has been associated with very blatant research fraud (for which his collaborator got fired but he didn't) *and* who is quite prominent in the Epstein files asking for the phone number of "that redhead"
Prof Christina Pagel21also much of the reporting was over claims about his life that had zero to do with his job or academic competence.
John Rowan12I think "who is making the most noise about this, what are their motives, and why are they making more noise about this than other, similar cases?" is a useful starting point in the current social media climate.
Mrs Quent10TBF, even the people who posted about e.g. O’Reilly are less likely to remember his name because they’ll have only seen it once or twice rather than the million times Arday had been on their news and sm feed. I’m not sure I’d hold them liable
Euan Healey139I'd wager every academic will be able to tell you of at least one person in their field who has credible suspicions of plagiarism or related misconduct against them. Few to none lose their jobs for it, fewer even publish retractions or corrections! It's blinding how confected the whole panic was.
James Austin29This. And the thing is... we shouldn't need to know those names. These shouldnt be national stories. Similar shit happens at workplaces across the country every day and, rightly, its not national news. But for various pretty bad reasons this was
Neil Stenhouse9Dan Ariely is an extremely prominent social scientist who had an NBC drama loosely based on him run for two seasons. How many people outside academia know his name in connection with all the fraud he engaged in? How many would know it if he was not white?
Ben Fulford3This and the next few replies
Feargal Cochrane3And where are the dozen+ articles a day about the much more scandalous behaviour within academia (and there’s plenty of it) not least from white VCs, including recent arrests over fraud? Close to zero interest…wonder why?
There is a difference between scrutiny and entertainment. Jason Arday’s career posed questions, but they shouldn’t have become obsessional. Journalism should seek truth, but not public humiliation.
Buck Frexit60And be even handed. We all see certain people in public life lying almost every day and it’s almost shrugged off because either they do it so often or they are the “right” (in both senses) kind of person.
Kuntie Plopkins45Caroline Flack all over again
tanders24.bsky.social32These are your colleagues Paul - you need to call out the likes of Ferrari and Pearson
Jonny Brick22Good. Now go out and talk to every single person who works for Rothermere, Murdoch and Marshall. And if you can't cover them all, get your editor to do it. This has been the worst week for your profession since the Milly Dowler revelations. Fix the problem; don't just put a sticking plaster on.
Poet Sue19Absolutely and journalism shouldn't be working to an agenda like journalists working for Telegraph and Mail. That agenda is to prove that DEI is woke and that white people are better than black people. Too many right wing British newspapers don't seek truth they seek to prove their own agenda.
Ricey 🏳️🌈 🇮🇪 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 🇬🇱10Cambridge gets away with almost no scrutiny into their failings. Its willingness to cast him to the wolves & racist media outlets to protect their privilege & reputation at all costs. Poor guy didn't stand a chance.PoC Students should study elsewhere now knowing Cambridge isn't welcoming for them
Sylvia37Gosh, there is an awful lot of High Horse sitting today by those trying desperately to absolve themselves and their peers of blame
รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️🌈34hilarious that he thinks what he and his mates do is ‘seek truth’. there is no journalism in britain. the entire news media class in britain is about extorting and bribing our political class.
Euphoric Mess324 hour news needs near constant fresh takes and angles. The most hateful stuff gets clicks and so they write more of it We are part of the problem
Chris Rivers3How often does journalism seek truth rather than denigration?
Jason Arday was (literally) hounded to death for a matter that ultimately affected one university. Boris Johnson lied to us all at the despatch box, funnelled tax payers money to his mistress & mates & shook off security to party with a KGB spy… yet gets a column in the Daily Mail.
Suffolk Sue14Quite. It's sickening. That poor young man. Johnson of course has no conscience and is an over-privileged prick who should be in jail for Misconduct in Public Office and treason.
Chris Smith9You can only get a column in the Daily Mail if you are a mendacious vicious arsehole with no integrity and no honour.
Stu Can Play At That Game9I think we all, deep down, know why the pair received very different treatment.
Allen Bergin5It was the same media that covered both stories. On the one hand, Johnson, a right wing Tory ripping us all off by cheating . On the other, a Black non- establishment figure who had the temerity to improve his life by cheating a university.
bettertimes69.bsky.social3Yep, The Heil is a natural home for him. He reflects their values very well. A perfect poster boy.
daveofbusbridge9.bsky.social3Yes. The Daily Wail leader of the Briyish Gutter press. Foreign owned by rightwing billionaires. 90% of "news" is celebrity gossip. Remainder of "news" is attacks on anyone left of Farage.
Very interesting that @privateeyenews.bsky.social has deleted the videos of @helenlewis.bsky.social laughing at Jason Arday. I wonder why.
Andy Churnwell214Helen is one of those rare account that is both on The Spectator garden party list, the transphobe list, and a private school attendee. No wonder she's enjoying success as a journalist in this country.
Magic Money Tree35They can't delete it all bsky.app/profile/magi...
Kris (he/him)20It's because they are cowards as well as being scum.
Old Hobbit🐸13Nasty person. There are some elitist sneerers at that magazine.
Jojo she/her10Disgusting wretches. I hope its all bern archived
Omelette Coleman9We should get Ratbiter (AKA "the Octopus") onto the case. He always wants to sniff out in injustice among the establishment wherever he finds it!
Dr Alex Fitzpatrick182can this finally be the end of people pretending Helen Lewis has ever said anything of value she’s a transphobe and a racist and no amount of anti-Trump “feminist” pieces will ever absolve her of the violence she has directly and indirectly contributed to
Emily Hamilton10Transphobes and racists. All part of the same squalid little gang.
Louise Hector7And Kathleen Stock wrote one of the hit pieces. Guys, a thought has just occurred to me. Is it possible that TERFs are just plain old bigots and it was never about protecting women?
There are times in this profession where you choose between a contemplative silence, or resolving that it’s cowardly. So I want to say RIP to Jason Arday. The feeding frenzy around this story was too great. The glee, the sense that they got their man. There was just no end in sight. It’s unbearable
Jason Okundaye106But I also can’t ignore my part in all this. Whatever there is to be said about what I wrote, I still wrote about him and this story that should have been an internal workplace matter not national news. I am so sorry to his family and to him.
mariebbrown.bsky.social16Amidst all the strange obsession at the Guardian with this story, this was the piece that really got me. So cruel. I really hope you have some influence at the Guardian because I was sickened by it. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Shirley Dee3It's despicable that our Ku Klux Klan (UK media) are allowed to get away with.hounding someone to their death. Is there no justice? My deepest sympathies with friends and family of Jason Arday
Fiery1And it still is unbearable. The feeding frenzy continues.
This is what british racism looks like in 2026. Everyone makes mistakes but ethnic minority mistakes are met with lynch mobs. Beyond disproportionate. RIP Jason Arday.
pmf4Ironically, according to his Wiki page the owner of Axel Springer and the Telegraph was accused of plagarism.
oddly-s.bsky.social2Mistakes? He was a narcissistic fraudster that was found out Wtf are you talking about mistakes Granted the hounding was excessive but at the end of the day this man was a toxic liar that climbed into a position he had no right to be! Whys everyone pretending he's some kind of martyr?
Chemistry in the city1True, but many are implicated.
So, this post has just been deleted. FYI, it shows Adam MacQueen, Helen Lewis and Matt Muir on a Private Eye podcast having a jolly wheeze ripping Jason Arday’s character to pieces. I wonder why its been deleted 🤔 bsky.app/profile/glen...
CEO Johnny Cans51Oh Helen Lewis gleefully attacking black people, damn that's crazy.
Jo the Hat18Don't know who the men are, but not surprised about Lewis. Scratch a terf, find a racist and all that.
Cora Peeta M 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇦🇶🇺🇳 💙💗🤍💗💙13I'm surprised that MacQueen (Cambridge), Lewis (Oxford) allowed Muir (Glasgow Caledonian). To join in. I thought Private Eye from its beginning was primarily about establishment insiders making shrug-offable jibes at the establishment
Starcross Stories8Helen Lewis quotes from this podcast episode: "It's a rollicking good yarn" "He [Jason Arday] doesn't have a great deal of insight into his condition"
Stevie7Private Eye is slowly turning into a nasty caricature of the media it so gleefully mocks. I was a regular reader but cannot stand its hypocrisy no longer.
thisisradio3dom.bsky.social6I suspect, like a lot of media channels, the moment Jason Arday's death was announced (the media would have known before the Hoi Polloi) their lawyers were going through everything, they'll all be in arse covering mode.
A Mere Solicitor81The smug arseholes @privateeyenews.bsky.social have deleted their disgusting video… …but it was still up last night. They don’t want adverse comments, they were gleeful when it was just bullying.
Dr Neutopia9The podcast is up on YouTube so they're still monetising Arday's death.
Tony Cross5I'm not sure how much of a bastion of satire you can be if you're not prepared to stand by your piss-taking even when you've been an arsehole about it.
Nick Barlow3When Diana died, the Eye's cover could mock the media's feeding frenzy around her as they were somewhat apart from it. Now they've just become another 24/7 take factory that churns out the same opinion slop as everyone else.
The relentless British press pile-on should concern us all. Jason Arday and Meghan show how dangerous media hysteria can become. Thank God Harry protected Meghan and Archie. #JasonArday #MeghanMarkle
bluefinsswimming.bsky.social13The remaining British Royals are like a ridiculous sitcom, with William so up himself he could not see Harry needed to be free.We talk about hatred and racism in the USA but the British take the cake because they would not entertain a non-white duchess. The British press still make up lies even now.
jubileejulieb4I recognize the OP has named two Black people and race is definitely a significant part of this story. But I also see another commenter mentioned Caroline Flack so I will also say . . . Diana. Their relentlessness is murderous. Their loss of ability to see they are chasing down a real PERSON. 😞
Dee3Harry literally said the media would not stop until Meghan died
Patrick Dalton2Pretty sure Okenshitt has been whinging about the press being mean to Farage lately.
pob1They have learned nothing since Caroline Flack.
Prdnme1Without Harry and Meghan there would be quite a lot of reporters unemployed. Vultures.
Has Nigel Farage managed to make the Jason Arday tragedy all about himself yet….? 🙄 #r4today
Scarlet Hood8Remember that ‘friend’ who, no matter what the tragedy or bad circumstance you or your other friends had suffered - they always made the story about them in the end? That’s Farage. Trying to milk any undeserved sympathy/victimhood no matter the circumstances. He is a soul-sucker.
Lucy Abbotts 2I’m sure it’s crossed his mind.
holocenespiral.bsky.social1He and his vile, bigoted rhetoric are what has enabled the bullies who facilitated the pile-on, so he should certainly claim ownership of it.
Dan.G 🇬🇧🇪🇺1Well. He wasn't at the count. He doesn't have an alibi...
The treatment of Jason Arday was massively out of proportion to his faults. People who have committed terrible crimes have received less scrutiny, yet I don't believe anything he did or said even crossed the threshold of criminality. How many of us would have survived what he was put through? 🧵
George Monbiot18The chase was begun by racists, who saw his fabulations and alleged plagiarism as a great chance to slap down uppity Black people, and to advance their efforts to stifle equality of opportunity. Then most of the media seemed to take leave of its senses. How was this a headline story, day after day?
AlyceMiller5Cambridge used him, the media abused him. It’s a horrible tragedy, and not one he deserved. 💔💔💔
I don't think it's controversial to say that much of the commentary around Jason Arday was gleefully cruel and largely pointless. Reporting from what I saw of it was mostly fine, but the columnist/commentator culture in Britain has been troubled for some time.
Elle8And the editorial decisions to splash it on the front page relentlessly as if it was akin to a murder story or something really meaningful…
Mark Pack4That is a useful distinction, agreed. I think it is fair to say also that even for news reporting there is a fair Q about the relative prominence given to this story and that of George Holmes?
Mark Keating3"The mercenaries and parasites of the Press, who prostitute its more than royal power, and dishonor a noble profession, will find it easy to mock at things too wonderful for them to understand; for to them the price of a paragraph is more than the value of sincerity." (H. P. Blavatsky, 1877)
Laura1What I saw wasn't mostly fine. Unbalanced, out of context, badly weighted, inferring all sorts of garbage from unreliable sources, all around bad journalism--and that was in the Guardian. So no, not fine.
