Jason Arday dead

[ThisWiseRobin]

Just putting this out there, but just heared.A sad end to a whole sorry mess.

I feel sad that he felt there was no way out other than to end his life. My heart goes out to his family.

In so many areas we seem to have given up on due process, expertise, evidence and facts!

The majority of which were a tissue of lies. Do we pretend otherwise because he topped himself?

I have been on the end of reporting by the press for something I didn’t do and it was nowhere near this level.
it doesn’t matter whether he was guilty or not. No one should be made to feel that this is their only option. Something needs to change.

I think this is the thing, there’s reporting on the facts and then there relentless hounding and trolling to the point that people are made to feel they have no other option than to take their own life.

I totally agree with this. Nothing Jason did justified his treatment

JA was fully prepared to go after others, though - reporting a journalist to the police for asking questions about his qualifications and subjecting that person to the stress of a criminal investigation. He couldn’t cope when the tables were turned. It is extremely sad that things went this far, especially for his poor family. They should be left to grieve in peace.

What is it with this go to reference to the Daily Mail and Reform? It's absolutely zilch to do with this situation. Two sets of people alone, created this Web of deception: not the media, not SM and not people on MN. The situation has been compared to criminals, Epstein in particular- why? Its nowhere near been covered on that scale and the two are incomparable at the outset. Oxbridge has been riding on past glories and its famous alumni for so long, it's become untouchable, even though both institutions frequently attract controversy. What Oxbridge rejects? You mean academics who were sacked because they questioned the merits and of DEI? The Guardian comprehensively covered the story. Are you going to direct your anger in that direction?

How do you know? Look at Caroline Flack, look at Princess Diana. It’s very easy to cry racism but the press just love to go after you, if you’re newsworthy which JA has made himself due to his fantastical claims. It wasn’t just a case of common or garden plagiarism at a university, which many on here seem to be suggesting.

I think that unfortunately JA was a bit of a fantasist, but he was also the pawn in two strands of racist thought - obviously, some people wanted to take him down because he was black, but I think that the second strand was more damaging, which is that Cambridge and others expected so much less from a candidate who served to demonstrate their diversity and then in the end left him to face the consequences when that was exposed.

unfortunately, the anger at Cambridge (and others) about this hiring practice and, frankly, the elevation of this critical race detritus (there is obviously a place in sociology for the study of race, but interviewing a small number of people about their experiences, sprinkling it with word salad and calling it a study is profoundly unserious) has been conflated with the anger at JA (who really set himself up with all the memoir stuff, but otherwise, in terms of the plagiarism, did something lots of people no doubt do). It is very unfortunate and tragic for JA to have been the fall guy for the fact that the whole thing is really thin and should never have been given serious academic space.

This is it, it’s the relentless nature of it & I’m sure the very public shame that people feel there is no escape from. Social media means very little escape.

I said on the thread about the pharmaceutical CEO that was murdered that I thought it terrible people cheered his death, his wife & children have faced hounding & death threats. Look at the amount of press and social media even on here Harry & M get. PP mentioned Caroline Flack, I remember posters convinced Nicole Bully had to involve someone else and many thought the husband. People seem to forget these are all real people behind the gossip &’stories.

I knew nothing of this man. Never heard of him, ever, until the MoL published articles on him DAILY for the last 2-3 weeks. He was headline news for them regardless of what else was going on in the country. Literally every single fucking day. I didn't read any of the articles because it felt like a pile on. It filtered across social media and I saw posts here, on reddit and instagram.

He died and they turned the article about his death into a footnote (without comments) whilst his death was headline news everywhere else (I saw it come on BBC and sky news) last night. Bollocks to them doing due diligence in gathering facts about circumstances relating to his death. They facilitated the pile on and now the man has died leaving behind 2 children.

@Ireolubut the DM wouldn’t keep running the story if people weren’t consuming it.

Said with no irony whatsoever! Unbelievable

I think you’ve misunderstood the point.

I don’t think so but feel free to explain.

You say “In so many areas we seem to have given up on due process, expertise, evidence and facts!” In defence of Cambridge University and academia when clearly they have given up on due process, expertise, evidence and facts in this case.

Or are you claiming JA did not plagiarise, make up research and exaggerate his credentials and that CU and other institutions did not fail to find out the truth when promoting him to a senior academic post?

It’s very sad that Jason Arday killed himself. It’s unfortunately hardly surprising. He built a myth and legend about himself built on half-truths and lies. That’s not typical behaviour; if you’re not a psychopath and do that, then you are someone with other mental health issues. Surely you lack a true sense of self and identity?

I feel that once this was exposed, he would have been in a vulnerable place mentally. There are many questions about support. I also question his family, who must have known that some of what he said was fabricated. The marathon running claims, for example. The various illnesses and injuries. The list goes on.

Cambridge, floundering also didn’t help. They could have swiftly agreed to investigate all the claims. Made sure he had support, and killed the story. His book publisher could have done the same.

I don’t, however, think that journalists have to stop investigating. Their jobs are to shine a light on the truth. Shutting that work down would be very dangerous.

Tragic end to a tragic tale. Who could have endured the level of scrutiny that he went under?! Everything he did was picked apart and questioned. His whole world must have been turned upside down.

Feel very sorry for his family. The Daily Mail have been very subdued reporting his death today but I doubt this will change how they love to target a person and rip them apart.

The media as a whole act like wolves tearing their prey with a relish. They seem to enjoy the act of bringing someone down. He didn't deserve this level of derision.

Don't you think he needs to take the blame for this? He knew everything was built on lies, presumably those close to him knew as well....it was only a matter of time before he was exposed.

Being scrutinized is not being bullied. He was being held accountable for his own freely chosen words and claims.

But the people who really need to be held accountable are all those who enabled and rewarded him for his fantasies. Cambridge should have been able to see that he was not competent in his role and that he made doubtful claims. There will always be fantasists, con artists and people with exaggerated sense of their own abilities. Institutions need to be able to spot and stop such people.

It’s terribly sad for JA’s family, but you can’t protect people from the consequences of their own freely chosen actions. He was damaging students by his incompetence and he took a job someone competent could have done. It’s sad for him, but he did need to be exposed in his chosen lies.

I think there are very serious concerns about JA and Cambridge University and others involved in this saga. But I don’t leap to judgement based on allegations and suppositions and without all the facts to hand.

Come on. This is not terribly complex, and we should not kid ourselves that only those appropriately qualified in DEI or ND have the right to have a view. Or even that their view might not be clearer.

Institutions have long treated scrutiny or even mockery from the outside as illegitimate. This is nothing new and it’s usually not healthy.

In the emperor’s new clothes it was the child who spotted the emperor was naked. The courtiers no doubt argued that he had insufficient tailoring qualifications to judge. The fact was, he was right, and he spoke because had nothing to fear from his peers for pointing it out.

It’s so interesting that several pp are continuing to claim that it was the Daily Mail alone who wrote numerous articles about this fiasco despite the many articles by other newspapers including the Guardian being pointed out several times on this thread.

What’s that about? Using this tragedy to take a pop at a newspaper? Trying to present the interest in this case was purely click-bait journalism rather than genuine concern about the state of academia and DEI in this country? Who knows, but it’s very unedifying.

I feel very sorry for Jason's family and that Jason himself reached a stage where he could see no way forward.

I didn't, and still don't, have very much sympathy for the position he put himself in. I am not going to pretend hypocritically that I was on his side before this happened. There are many liars and fantasists who get away with things; Jason was found out; that was a risk he took. Like many, he was happy to court publicity via the press and social media when he was flavour-of-the-month, and sadly the price you pay for that is that those channels are fickle and the people who use them will follow like sheep in whatever direction the wind is blowing.

This is a very sad ending, and I am sorry that Jason clearly wasn't supported to pick up the pieces and move forward. I wish his family peace.