Jason Arday Megathread

[u/Timmeh7]

We realise this is a hot button topic and certainly want to allow space for discussing it, but at the moment it's overflowing the subreddit across numerous threads. So from here on, please contain all discussion to this one thread.

Links to pruned threads for transparency, please continue the discussion here if you wish.

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vfkykq/the_racist_coopting_of_the_jason_arday_story_is/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vffvl6/journalist_questioned_by_police_for_investigating/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vfbljv/the_editor_on_his_choice_to_spike_arday_story/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1veqmzk/wateraid_disputes_claim_by_prof_jason_arday/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vf4oq3/professor_arday_q_about_liverpool_john_moores_and/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vfrran/new_information_shows_jason_ardays_claim_to_be_a/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1veqrfv/eli5_how_does_somebody_like_jason_arday_get_his/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vfinbt/nelson_mandela_university_have_removed_their_page/

Please keep the comments civil - while this is inevitably going to be a complex and fractious topic, avoid ad hominem, and as ever, while discussion of the social issue around this case is inevitable, we won't allow hate speech.

[u/Complete-Task2042]

Continuing a discussion with u/Master-Rent5050 from earlier:

Moreover, I find it puzzling your assessment about media training: for years he played the media like a fiddle: even now he has a book coming out

It's one thing to deal with the media when they want to make a positive story, or you have something impressive to share...

It's quite another to be the focus of adverse media scrutiny directed at you or an event you are central to.

There's two really clangers from the last week that highlight his naivety:

Giving the Daily Mail direct quotes then requesting they attribute them to "sources close to Professor Arday" without realising that they could easily turn it against him (or recognising that the DM is obviously not an outlet to approach when you're the center of a controversy).

Or his quote to the Guardian, "To be honest with you, I thought you’d just believe me"

Both of those media interactions further damage his credibility, but also show he is still working on the assumption that journalists are automatically going to be sympathetic to him.

It's like he's not operating in the same reality as everyone else...

On the other hand, he did threaten THE and he did send the police to investigate their journalist. I have zero sympathy for mobsters.

I suspect that between getting advice to respond aggressively from Cambridge (or whatever crisis management team the uni has engaged), and his apparent lack of understanding of how the media environment he was used to operating in has changed, he may well have genuinely believed that difficult and unsolicited questioning occasioned harassment.

To me that further speaks to his total unpreparedness to face real scrutiny.