To compare and contrast coverage and outcome of the Jason Arday scandal with that of Cambridge plagiarist William O'Reilly

[OneArtfulUmberSquid]

Partly due to being an academic, the slow news season and the sensationalism, like many people I've been following the Jason Arday story and have been appalled by the scale of the fabulation and the abysmal lack of due diligence by Cambridge when they appointed him - I've also been appalled by how he was presented by the University when he was hired in terms of the emphasis on his back story and what he represented rather than his scholarship.

It's interesting to compare/contrast with the case of William O'Reilly - who was caught plagiarising his own undergrad students' essays and was then found to have plagiarised other scholars' work a number of times before...see https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/27433

He also threatened to sue student journalists for exposing him - not as bad as Arday calling the police, but still pretty risible
https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/26105

A further issue relates to his witness for the accused in a rape case despite being involved in the investigation.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/feb/22/cambridge-university-sexual-misconduct-cases
https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/18747

I'd be interested to know what anyone else thinks of the two cases in terms of academic misconduct and outcomes, particularly anyone who works in Cambridge. O'Reilly claimed that the scrutinising of his work was due to homophobia.

More here but behind a paywall
https://www.ft.com/content/ae7f16ae-95ab-4aae-a676-0748e3e61b6d?shareType=nongift&syn-25a6b1a6=1

Is it because William O'Reilly didn't have a 1.4 million advance from Simon & Schuster?

I can imagine that's rankled a lot of journalists.

Do you believe everything he claimed?
There's as much proof he was autistic as there was proof he had a brain tumour removed three weeks before his PhD viva, played professional snooker AND football, spent six months in a coma after a car crash, ran multiple marathons on a broken leg, or any other of the patently ridiculous lies he told.

I have seen him being interviewed, and I thought he was highly emotionally manipulative in a way I wouldn't expect of someone with autism.

As a matter of fact, I'm not a fool.

Was it scepticism ? It was more like X=Y=Z

Don't worry about my emotion state. I'm fine thank you.

Actually it's if L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y = lies, there's a possibility Z isn't truthful either.

I'm glad you're not a detective.

Arday was a serial fantasist so anything he said is questionable until independently proven to be true. For example his claim to have been an Olympic torch bearer in 2012 seems implausible but there is photographic proof.

Simon Baron-Cohen on the radio this morning a fellow named pupil confirmed to SB-C on the phone yesterday morning that Jason didn't speak at primary school. Then he talked about the claim that he didn't learn to read or write until he was 18 & suggested that perhaps he had difficulties with literacy at that age.

Absolutely anything Arday claimed needs to be independently fact-checked before we can accept it as being true.

I agree. I think that is exactly what needs to happen. All these pppl saying he said or did this therefore X Y and Z is also true are taking the wrong approach imo.

Is he a victim of being told any dream is possible with support & accommodations? However lofty or difficult the goal? That was part of his message - any disadvantaged kid can achieve anything they set their mind to with love, kindness & support? IF they have & foster great tenacity.

Serious question, you don't have any concerns about any of his back story?

Any of the 'facts' he has put in his autobiography?

Don't forget all the support & adjustments. This is a guy with learning disabilities who has landed a job as a professor at one of the world's top academic institutions. He has been facilitated by all those making allowance for his disabilities. Is it ableist to say that if you have LD then you shouldn't expect to become a Cambridge professor?

Public figures accepting public money (student loans) absolutely should be scrutinized. Why he got the job, even more so. Who didn’t get the job because he did? Was he the best candidate? Highly unlikely. Cambridge has pushed the DEI agenda and not fairness in recruitment. It’s not remotely racist for a free press to question this. The guy traded on lies and earned money on lies. It makes no odds as to his colour. If you don’t want the attention, tell the truth!

So are those who are trusting the word of someone who has been shown to have lied again, and again and again.

Oh and I'm not saying Z is a lie too. I'm saying it's not unreasonable to question it.

I think if you had a court case and didn't examin each bit of evodence on its own merits, you'd be talking about a miscarriage of justice and I think the same applies here. As far as I'm aware, they dont give people's previous convictions up front in a trial for a reason.

I actually think it’s a lot worse than that and he hasn’t been held personally to account enough.

The man has presumably taken his life. What more accountability would you like to see?

You cannot honestly compare and contrast without acknowledgment of the wider context. There’s so many different elements to the Arday case that make it more sensational, that just aren’t present in that of O’Reilly.

He wasn’t merely a common or garden plagiarist, but a fantasist and con man that managed to make it as far as he did at Cambridge. Cambridge utterly fucked up here with their failure of due diligence, and have shown themselves up with their cynical tokenism. If they wanted a black academic in the role they could have had a genuinely qualified one, but no, they wanted the one that would get the most attention so they could dine out on appearing progressive.

He in turn exploited cultural sensitivities over race to not only climb as highly as he did, but also to shut down anyone questioning him. It was a shield and a sword. It has lit a fire up under the already controversial issue of EDI hiring.

If you want an even greater Cambridge scandal though, there is that of Philby and the rest of the Cambridge 5. Even being from the pre-internet era, it dwarfs that of Arday in orders of magnitude.

Yes.

I was struck though by his view any disadvantaged child could become an astrophysicist with appropriate support. IF we take what he said at face value. If you keep believing you can somehow manifest the impossible it can have dangerous consequences perhaps (?) It’s in an interesting & powerful message.

For a start we need to stop treating the man as if he were a misunderstood child devoid of agency or some kind of innocent bystander who was subjected to a racist witch hunt. He was an incredibly prominent con artist who has made millions of pounds off the back of his lies and dishonesty. I don’t know why so many are at such pains to patronise the man in this way.

He was not held to account by the university. He was not held to account by publishers. He was not held to account by the kimono killer’s GLP. He was not held to account by the police. He was not held to account by his family. He was not held to account by his colleagues (although this may be because he tried to destroy those who were prepared to).

I have not seen anyone actually hold him to account.

It is tragic that he took his own life. He should never have felt there was no other way out.

True. But juries tend not to believe everything someone testifies to in court when they have been shown to have lied over and over and over again about other things, and have stolen someone's else work and passed it off as their own, to boot!

JA was careful to only plagiarise a lowly academic who had little clout in the upper echelons of academia. He was able to take advantage of the woke mind virus where people gang up on those who speak out. This is what happened to anyone who asked questions about his research or who cast doubt on the ludicrous claims he made about his achievements. He was at fault, but it was the system around him that enabled someone who was mediocre at best to have a well paid, responsible and prestigious job.

How many others are there like this?

“Interesting to compare”,
”risible” to call the police.
I’d say this thread aged pretty fucking badly. The whole thing cost a man his life. I feel sick!