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

I’m not sure what you mean.

I don’t think there’s any reason to expect a bias-free system to deliver an Oxbridge professorate that reflects the ethnic mix of the general population.

That’s becuase we know that groups have different patterns of attainment, and these get magnified at the extremes as a matter of maths.

I think we should always be looking out to find bias where it exists, and also look out to avoid finding bias where it doesn’t exist too.

Lol.

I'm not willing to claim racism or abelism in the case of an obvious fantasist who promoted his litany of lies as his life story and has caused damage to untold numbers of people.

Many, many people here are commenting based on the lies or probable lies that Jason publicly claimed to be his life.

You obviously haven't looked into this case in any way before claiming racism. Something Jason was relying on and saw him through till now when his fabrications are being exposed.

And thanks to uninformed people like you, will continue to happen. Particularly because he chose not to face the truth and opted out and his supporters can now say 'leave him alone, he's dead'.

Yes he's dead and that's sad for him and his family but these are important issues he caused in academia, race and ND discussions and we won't be shut down.

I was absolutely fascinated by the Arday case. It has all the ingredients of a good scandal and touches on so many different topics.

From what you say I might be interested in this case too. But arday has just died. So I do not have the appetite to look at this right now.

JA was brought down by the press because of his excessive fabrications, plagiarism, calling the police on a journalist, employing lawyers to shut down scrutiny. If he hadn't done those things, he would've got away with it.

There are plenty of people who are not very good at their jobs. He would have just been another person drawing a good salary who wasn't very good at his job.

He was brought down by his own excesses and the idiocy of Cambridge in recruiting him. It's a sad case and I hope academia can learn from it.

Plenty of white men & women have had falls from power due to scrutiny by media. No one escapes it. When the press realise there is a story they are relentless. JA press coverage lasted because of the volume of revelations and his book release this week. He also had people from his primary school years saying his claims of mutism were incorrect. Had it been one or two lies it would have gone away quickly.

Usually a scandal ends with the person having to admit the truth.. "that essay was plagiarised" or "I did have an affair" and the story ends. JA hadn't got to the stage of admitting the untruths Indeed his resignation wouldn't acknowledge any past behaviours.

I imagine he believed his own back story and so confronting reality would have been too much. I have personal experience so can relate to his family's pain.

There are supposed to be checks in highly responsible jobs to safeguard society and the individual. Cambridge and the other institutions failed.

That’s a lot of words to avoid the point. You drew a comparison between the old boys network and ‘DEI’, with a hope that both can now be left in the past. But you can’t ignore the fact that the old boys network, alive and kicking for centuries, has seen white mostly men fail upwards and upwards, with no tearing them down or suicides resulting.

56 Articles in the Daily Mail in 2 weeks, apparently.

I'm still bemused that people don't think this was about race, about a young black man being in an environment that the haters felt was for white people.

He was held to s higher standard yhan if a white man had done the same.

The harassment was off the scale

The comments on social media, even on here, we're disgusting.

We will never learn.

I genuinely can’t think of a comparable example (ie one which is about suitability for a professional job, not a celebrity scandal) but my memory might be at fault. If you can suggest one, I’m interested.

I agree it’s astonishing that proper processes and checks were obviously not done. We could assume they weren’t done for him because of positive discrimination, or we could - more fairly - now expect a review of all hiring decisions by the same panel members.

Who is ‘we’?

No-one is defending the old boys network. Most sensible people believe that meritocracy is the only way to go. If Cambridge had applied that principle they wouldn't have recruited JA and none of this would've happened.

Jason Arday was 'famous' for his life story before he was the youngest black professor at Cambridge.

So famous for his incredible back story he ran with the Olympic torch for the London Olympics in 2012.

One of only 7,300 non-celebrites out of a population of almost 70 million in 2012 chosen because of their personal or community achievements.

Those personal and community achievements we now know were largely or completely fabricated.

He's been promoting himself and his incredible life for years. The Cambridge Professorship was the result of this.

Just because you only heard about him recently so are bewildered by the attention doesn't mean he hasn't been promoting the hell out of his lies for years.

And Brian Cox wasn't famous before he entered academia. He was the keyboard player for a one or two hit wonder band used to promote new Labour. No-one knew his name before he became a famous physicist and then the fact he was in the band became a 'thing' but his academic work is and has been his focus in all his interactions with the media.

Not the fact he was in a band 30 years ago

Cause of death hasnt yet been confirmed. I wonder if it will all go quiet if it was natural causes

I don't think the world will ever be free of the old boys network. It, or its equivalent, is baked into the power system of every country on the planet, unfortunately.

I was interested to discover that most of the modern British aristocracy are direct descendants of the Norman lords gifted land by William the Conqueror in 1066!

Living in a meritocracy would be great, maybe one day it will happen....

No, he was held to a lower standard. Cambridge skipped due diligence when they recruited him because they were so desperate to have a black professor on their staff team. This is where the racism lies - in lower expectations.

But you can’t ignore the fact that the old boys network, alive and kicking for centuries, has seen white mostly men fail upwards and upwards, with no tearing them down or suicides resulting

What sectors are you referring to? Previously you could get into an Army regiment if a family member was there previously (which was bizarre) but that has most definitely gone. All places are earned and selection is rigourous.

Genuinely interested in where you think this still exists.

I think the aftermath was fuelled by the gob-smacking absurdity of his vanity tales.

Cambridge should have been more diligent before employing him and during his tenure with them. However, one person set this saga in motion and it was Arday. Arday, who stole another person's work to gain an unearned qualification and ultimately a professorship at Cambridge where he was welcomed, promoted and feted. He could have kept his head down, done a good job and produced quality work but it appears that wasn't enough for him. From what I've read, he either accepted media invitations or actively courted them for more opportunities to spout his frankly ridiculous claims - 30 marathons in 35 days, 9 marathons he ran with a broken leg - just WTAF!. So many fanciful claims he expected everyone to accept as gospel - and probably many did or thought what difference did it make as long as he's doing his job, except he wasn't doing his job well or producing quality work. His plagiarism, poor work performances and his ludicrous lies were always going to come back to bite him on the arse - it was just a matter of time.

Sadly with his death, he's now added more victims to his list.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/21/police-chief-nick-adderley-gross-misconduct-falklands-war-medal

"A police chief constable who wore a Falklands war medal despite being 15 at the time of the conflict has been dismissed without notice and placed on the police barred list after being found guilty of gross misconduct.
Nick Adderley, the chief constable at Northamptonshire police, exaggerated his military rank, length of service and naval achievements, including implying that he served in the Falklands war, the hearing heard."

He was never appointed at Glasgow! That was part of the web of lies he’s spun and is precisely what’s so vexing about all the lies.

Yes, this is a real life modern day re-telling of the Emperor's New Clothes. But unlike the story, it has a tragic end.

Thanks. I don’t remember this one but the internet tells me it was covered extensively.

56 articles in the Daily Mail in 2 weeks is demonstratably untrue.

I think if you want to claim harassment from the media you need to not make things up.

And what do you want people to learn?

In one instance, an essential criteria was that the applicants were fluent in a specific language and that they had good knowledge of a particular faith whilst a desirable criteria was that they were practicing Christians. This was in a CofE school.

And the Salt Path - I mean on here the amount of threads was significant and it was all over the papers.

Is it not racist to assume all criticism is because of his colour?

I agree. The main factor here for me was the making up of illnesses; alongside the fraud. And the police involvement. That’s what made salt path so compelling too.

No problem...

Alderley was an idiot TBH.

If he'd stuck to embellishing his CV he might have got away with it, as I recall things it was the wearing of the medal/medal ribbon that set the ball rolling that led to his demise.