More news about Johann Hari, a journalist on the Independent, a British newspaper very keen to claim the moral high ground and to rubbish everyone else. This Hari has an outstanding reputation for trickery. On one occasion he joined a National Review cruise passing himself off as an ordinary passenger and writing it up as though he’d been behind enemy lines. If that’s not being an imposter, what is it? But his speciality is to do interviews and incorporate into the published article whole passages as though they had been spoken to him when actually they have been written elsewhere. The Daily Telegraph for instance singles out that in a nearly 5,000-word interview with Ann Leslie, a very experienced reporter, he took 545 words from an article she had written in the Daily Mail. If that’s not plagiarism, what is it? His editor has now suspended him “pending the outcome of an internal inquiry.” This Hari was once awarded the George Orwell Prize, and those judges are having an investigation into what he did. Orwell is known to have attacked nuisance-types with an uplifted chair, and that is what he’d have done to this Hari trading on his name and reputation.
I was on the cruise that Hari wrote about and had taken quite detailed notes at each of the seminars. His description of one did not match anything in my notes. He exaggerated an exchange that was insignificant in order to mock our panel discussion. I usually have about 30 pages of notes after each cruise and what he covered would have fit on an index card...and wasn't even correct...very amateurish and unprofessional coverage.
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