James O'Brien reflects on the death of former professor Jason Arday

I'd read a couple of texts before we get into this horrible story in more detail. Here's one from Matt. Can we also talk about the vile doubling down and trolling from vampires like and then and then you mentioned some name who are still blaming the poor guy when will they be held liable did Caroline Flack teach them nothing and a few people have raised the memory of Caroline Flack who took her own life as Jason Arday did it was reported late on Friday Matt in Northampton says no one has learned a single thing from Caroline Flack's death not a single thing I've never seen the guy but as soon as I heard the news I felt so sad what a stupid thing to hound someone to death I mean there's quite strong guidance on talking about suicides and there's never one reason speculation is generally discouraged because you will never know what was going on in someone's mind at the at the crucial moment but you will know what was going on in our world up to that moment I will points out I suppose the context for your conversation would need a white guy getting exactly the same levels of relentless coverage well Caroline was of course white and had been accused of I don't think anyone had accused Jason Arday of any crimes but she'd certainly been accused she had been accused of a crime that the narrative and it's one that has been explored by her mother as well including in an incredibly emotional call to Sheila Fogerty on this radio station the narrative was that the media spotlight was a contributory factor and and the thing that the spotlight was pointed at albeit that it was prompted by events it was it was still a person and you forget that or people forget that it is a story and you forget that it's a person I remember a million years ago I was having a right old pop at the football of Frank Lampard I was reading all the stuff in the newspapers about him falling out with his ex and and I did you know what was commonplace in tabloid newspapers at the time but I'd not done it on the radio before and and he rang in and he was deeply deeply upset with how I was characterizing his his private life and and I remember thinking probably that afternoon actually that's a person it's not just a story I was quite wet behind the ears here myself and on newspapers you forget completely that stories are about people and I'm not defending what was done in the in the print media this this last week if I if I had to I if I had to mount a defense and some of the stuff I've seen is indefensible I'll tell you in a moment why I'm not gonna read it out to you or indeed name any names of the people responsible if I had to mount a defense it would be that in this profession we often forget that people are stories and stories are people real people I hope I don't do that anymore I haven't really done it since since that encounter all that all those years ago but I probably do you know I probably do the the reason I'm not going to mention any names may disappoint you or surprise you I I don't I don't know that you get to control where the pylons go next I don't know how people who were gleeful the word I would use is gleeful I got sent a lot of examples over the weekend of people who were absolutely gleeful in their coverage of the mounting accusations and allegations against Jason Arday the central one that he plagiarized his PhD thesis at John Moores University I think I told you a week and a bit ago that I've seen elements of the investigation into that and that not only was he exonerated in that inquiry and I can see why there were calls for a more independent inquiry but actually the culpability was in large part self-directed it was directed back at Liverpool John Moores University for a failure to properly supervise or to accommodate his special educational needs that was missing from the story from the very start the person who started it all is isn't it's I mean a white supremacist someone who believes that there should be or there would be no black people in academia if I don't know diversity equity and inclusion programs hadn't existed so there are there are many moving parts to what happened but for me and you could can disagree with me on this is it's obviously going to be a phone in 0 3 4 5 6 0 6 0 9 7 3 is obviously going to be the number it is it is the the nature of the story and the reality of the human being got completely blurred the reason why I'm not going to mention names or read anything out despite the incredible sort of avalanche of really hideous commentary is because I think you possibly become part of the same problem so imagine a columnist or a broadcaster who had been really really gleeful about it and I now went for them would I not be guilty of doing so so I'll talk about what I have said I'll talk about myself but I don't know you could disagree but but and you may have to disagree with me in order to answer the question that I'm about to ask you because there are growing calls for some sort of public inquiry or investigation into what is called the media onslaught the vicious media onslaught against Jason are they I thought that he was being quite naive when he resigned if he thought that it would stop but there were things that really really shocked me in the aftermath of his resignation the story that really shot me and David Aronovich has written a brilliant short sub stack about this David is one of the sub stack as I subscribe to and he like me focused on a story last week from a young woman whose name was not disclosed I can't remember which newspaper she wrote in but she wrote about how he wasn't a very good teacher and it was anonymous and it was from I think very early on in his career and it was after he had resigned and there was a sort of gleefulness in the coverage of that story I almost a sort of a rubbing of hands with glee about yet another accusation to level at him and some of the accusations obviously he needed to be held accountable for that's something that he said himself something with which I completely agreed and and yet some of the stuff that came out especially after he had already resigned what else could he have done but resign and he did he resigned and then it carried on so the word I use is is gleefulness there was a gleefulness in it that I think was related to his ethnicity and related to a sort of form of tall poppy syndrome but mostly his ethnicity because he wasn't exactly a household name before these allegations and accusations emerged so I told you a week ago last Friday that I felt personally let down by Jason Arday because I had spent an hour in his company I've done a long interview with him on my full disclosure series and I had been utterly utterly beguiled by him completely beguiled by him personally and by his story and I have a job that involves talking about the news so obviously for me to talk about the news and not talk about my personal encounter with the man my personal experiences with the man would have been deeply deeply disingenuous and dishonest of me and I'm glad that I did not as disingenuous or as dishonest as talking about him every day last week and not even mentioning the fact that he's dead this morning and that's a whole different planet of disingenuousness but if I sought to conduct that debate without sharing with you my own feelings it would have been ridiculous of me to to ask you to share your feelings as well so I felt as I told you at the time very let down because I had believed every single syllable of his story both academically and personally and I felt on Friday night when news of his death broke I just thought how pathetic and unnecessary that sounded you know who cares what you think or feel I'd still do the same thing if we were there again because I would never have known when I talked about it that the story was going to end like this I said to you didn't I a week ago last Friday I'm always wary of bringing a personal angle to a conversation making it in any way shape or form about me but I'd met him and you hadn't so I wanted to tell you what I thought what I felt and um and what I found and the only person whose name I have put into the sphere is the racist who started the witch hunt because it was a witch hunt again I said to you a week last Friday it was a witch hunt but then they found some evidence of witchcraft for want of a better phrase they found things that he needed to be held accountable for and it began with a racist that's two things being true at the same time in the most uncomfortable way in the most uncomfortable way so the gleefulness for me is the most damning and shameful element of this entire story not not the reporting don't blame the journalists who pursued the story the gleefulness of the commentary is for me the thing that we're looking at here and there are parallels to be drawn there with Caroline Flack this is my position and I'm going to invite you to disagree in a moment he resigned from his position and the gleeful witch hunt continued if anything it gathered pace every single element of his backstory much of which appears to be worthy of further investigation but every single element of his but does it actually appear to be worthy of further investigation you know I'm not a fan of whataboutery but Ian Duncan Smith's CV was found to contain all manner of embellishments and exaggerations and it didn't stop him being leader of the Conservative Party and a putative Prime Minister you have a kind of what would the word be a grim acceptance that this is how the world works you know this is how the media works the nature once it wants a sniff of blood is in the water the nature of the Sharks is such that I don't know that any investigation under the Sun would change anything I think Simon Baron-Cohen who spoke very powerfully about his friend Jason Arday at the weekend is right when he says that the investigation at Cambridge should continue but what on earth will we do with the finding that the he that he hadn't plagiarized his PhD if that turns out to be the case if the original allegation turns out not to hold what do we do with that infant probably never talk about it again if you were one of the people displaying glee so what exactly would the point of an inquiry into the media onslaught be that's that's one of the headlines today it's a it's a call from a very honorable man Simon now Lord Woolley who's the principal of Homerton College Cambridge he's described the most horrendous toxic vicious wit witch hunt before his death and remember my background is in newspapers and I used to be one of those slightly ghoulish individuals that argued that if you are in the public sphere if your public life had if you pursued a public life a public profile a public reputation then the price you paid for all the benefits that that brings is scrutiny and and is criticism and is critique and a large part of me still believes that to be true but there was something about last week's coverage that just felt way too much didn't it and and for me at least that the entry point would be the gleefulness the entry point would be the gleefulness so as he said himself he needed to be held accountable for some of the claims that he'd made as I said myself having believed every single one of those claims very very unquestioningly I felt very silly and as I'm saying to you now me feeling silly seems to be an utterly utterly irrelevant point given what happened on Friday night so make of that what you will the phone lines are open 0 3 4 5 6 0 6 0 9 7 3 I would remind you that the Samaritans are available 24 7 if any of these issues affect you and that their number is 1 1 6 1 2 3 the facts of the story are pretty much well known to you the gleefulness of the coverage is I think you'd agree the reason why many people are calling for an investigation into how the media behaved the media that behaved most badly will either double down on what they've done or go completely silent that there is no real I don't think you'll ever be hearing any self-reflection or self-blaming and in that kind of corner where the gleefulness was that just involves either staying silent and never talking about it again or doubling down and the reason why I don't think it is appropriate to go after individuals I even thought twice about sharing some footage at the weekend of the the bloke who got fired from Cambridge who started all of this the racist who started all of this I even thought twice about sharing footage of that but they but they released an interview on the morning after Jason are they died so I mean that is to me a request for attention but you know that kind of pressure can break people whatever side of an argument they're on I think it broke Jason although I can't obviously speculate with any certainty about the straws that broke camels backs but but I wouldn't sit here if the bloke who had started the witch hunt also ended up in a state of deep emotional distress and and contemplated going down that path you know we all in some ways put straws on camels backs we all do and I don't know maybe that sounds absolutely daft to you but that today is not the day to start listing the worst offenders or going after the commentators and columnists who who were gleeful gleeful in their hounding of this man as opposed to measured as the news reporters were or reflective as as those of us who knew him and felt dismayed by a perceived betrayal as we felt so 0 3 4 5 6 0 6 0 9 7 3 I'd say one thing actually that I did think about at the weekend and I do feel personally I think guilt probably about and he I shouldn't have forgotten that he was still big wide he was still beguiling you know he can't have all been invented it wasn't all flammery or exaggeration or embellishment you know there was something there that was very very special and it's not there anymore David Aaronovitch again mentioned Icarus and I couldn't get that image out of my head actually when I was thinking about this at the weekend and you just flew so close to the Sun that your wings fell off and it doesn't really matter what your wings are made of the tragedy the tragedy is is the death 23 minutes after 11 is the time so actually yeah I think all I'm going to ask you is this what do you think what do you think and of course crucially on this program what do you feel what what has this story done to you oh three four five six oh six oh nine seven three is the number that you need