BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[Rusty Nails]

Very few academics have been bigged up like Jason Arday was. He was encouraged to become a celebrity - claimed he was paid 1.4 million for his autobiography, was a guest editor on Today - so he had a higher place to fall from than most. I think some of the social media pile on was racist but outlandish claims by a high profile, highly promoted academic are a matter of public interest.

Yes he had further to fall, and didn't some of the media revel in that.

Perhaps they thought he should have known his place.

I am never convinced that being of public interest is a good moral argument for massive press coverage. Gossip, sex scandals and the weaknesses/shaming of public figures are undoubtedly, and unfortunately, of public interest and sell newspapers or promote online clicks, but that is not the same as in the public interest.

 

[Rusty Nails]

It's not just the plagiarism in this case. If Carney had gone on to an academic career and been found out he might well have ending up resigning.

And as a white academic, if he hadn't been a politician or Governer of the BofE, we would have heard nothing of it.

 

[AuroraSaab]

If he'd been a low profile, run of the mill academic it would likely have been dealt with quietly within the university. Arday or Gay were neither of those. Lots of high profile people have been sacked or resigned for misleading either their employer or the public by claiming awards or degrees they didn't have, or lying about things that never happened, including a UK police chief constable, the CEO of Yahoo, and several prominent news reporters. Plenty of them were white.

 

[Rusty Nails]

If he'd been a low profile, run of the mill academic it would likely have been dealt with quietly within the university. Arday or Gay were neither of those. Lots of high profile people have been sacked or resigned for misleading either their employer or the public by claiming awards or degrees they didn't have, or lying about things that never happened, including a UK police chief constable, the CEO of Yahoo, and several prominent news reporters. Plenty of them were white.

I am not arguing that, if he did in fact cheat, he should not have had to resign. His colour made him no different in that respect. That has also happened, as you say, to white academics...and I am only talking about academia here, not the wider world of business or politicians. You seem to ignore the main point of my concerns over this, which is not that he resigned (even though it has not been proven he did not warrant his PhD) but that in this case the pile-on was so great because of his colour and the influence of DEI in a pillar of the academic establishment, and the level of that pile-on made him feel that he had nothing to live for.

If you believe that his colour and the chance to attack "another woke DEI establishment" had nothing to do with the sheer volume and persistence of the press coverage, then I have a nice little bridge you can buy.

 

[AuroraSaab]

I think his case was used by some as a tool to attack wider DEI within academia. That opportunity was available because Cambridge, and some of his supporters, made him a poster boy for their own benefit because of his age, race, and back story, and when it initially started going pear shaped they didn't deal with it adequately. He was in so deep, and so vociferously supported, that there was no off ramp available to him. I don't think his case is solely a race thing.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I think his case was used by some as a tool to attack wider DEI within academia. That opportunity was available because Cambridge, and some of his supporters, made him a poster boy for their own benefit because of his age, race, and back story, and when it initially started going pear shaped they didn't deal with it adequately. He was in so deep, and so vociferously supported, that there was no off ramp available to him. I don't think his case is solely a race thing.

Not solely with respect to his race, although I stick to my view that a white academic would not have faced the same astonishing level of public, media attack ( which in effect blocked the off-ramp), but the part of DEI that undoubtedly gives most conservative/reactionary politicians the vapours is when they believe it is used to "disadvantage" the poor put-upon white majority.

I repeat, for the nth time, that Cambridge are not the ones engaged in the pile-on, and believe some of the media saw this as an opportunity to promote their agendas, regardless of the personal cost to Arday.

We obviously come at this from different viewpoints and there is no point in just repeating the same opinions.

 

[Ian H]

A bit more background to the Arday case.
The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday
The media’s coverage of the academic’s life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network
https://bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/...ambridge-university-and-targeted-jason-arday/

 

[AuroraSaab]

How does that square with the fact that a journalist from the Times Higher Educational Supplement was investigating the allegations around Arday in 2025? The story was spiked when Arday engaged Carter Ruck solicitors and the journalist received a call from the police after a complaint of harassment.

https://www.timeshighereducation.co...e-jason-arday-case-and-times-higher-education

https://www.timeshighereducation.co...olice-over-arday-case-i-was-just-doing-my-job

Nathan Cofcas simply picked up on allegations that were already circulating.

 

[Ian H]

View attachment 16893
How does that square with the fact that a journalist from the Times Higher Educational Supplement was investigating the allegations around Arday in 2025? The story was spiked when Arday engaged Carter Ruck solicitors and the journalist received a call from the police after a complaint of harassment.

https://www.timeshighereducation.co...e-jason-arday-case-and-times-higher-education

https://www.timeshighereducation.co...olice-over-arday-case-i-was-just-doing-my-job

Nathan Cofcas simply picked up on allegations that were already circulating.

You make it sound so inoffensive and reasonable.
...Cofnas had used the terms “retarded”, “illiterate”, and “mentally disabled” to describe Jason Arday, while noting that he was “black”.

 

[AuroraSaab]

I've made no comment about anything Cofnas wrote other than to say he was preceded by a Times journalist investigating the original allegations - a fact which kind of undermines your claim that it's all some recent far right concoction of an issue out of nowhere. I certainly haven't condoned his language, nor called it inoffensive and reasonable. I think the 'there's nothing to it but racism' attitude doesn't do anybody any favours.

 

[Rusty Nails]

View attachment 16893
How does that square with the fact that a journalist from the Times Higher Educational Supplement was investigating the allegations around Arday in 2025? The story was spiked when Arday engaged Carter Ruck solicitors and the journalist received a call from the police after a complaint of harassment.

https://www.timeshighereducation.co...e-jason-arday-case-and-times-higher-education

https://www.timeshighereducation.co...olice-over-arday-case-i-was-just-doing-my-job

Nathan Cofcas simply picked up on allegations that were already circulating.

And the Mail, Spectator, Express, Telegraph and other more left leaning papers regularly devote page after page after page plus front page headlines to stories from the TES, as well as Cofcas running studies on loads of white academics accused of plagiarism.

No matter how much you try to normalise it there was an agenda in play here that was about more than one, potentially but not proven, cheating academic.

 

[AuroraSaab]

It's not just about the alleged plagiarism. It's the sheer volume of all the other hard to believe stuff - which wouldn't matter so much if Cambridge and Arday himself hadn't used it to raise his and the university's profile, which in turn led to his book deal and media career.

No papers picked up the TES story because it didn't run - the publication of it was spiked after solicitors letters. If it was a right wing academic or commentator, eg David Starkey, accused of the same stuff you guys would be all over it. Because an obnoxious right wing academic jumped on the Arday rumours it's all 'move along nothing to see here'.

 

[Rusty Nails]

you guys .

It is less about "an obnoxious right wing academic" than about the enthusiasm with which so many newspapers jumped on the comments of an obscure "obnoxious right wing academic" to further their agendas. My posts make my views on this clear.

You clearly think the pile-on was completely normal and warranted..."nothing to see here, move along".

 

[AuroraSaab]

I think some quarters used it as an excuse to question wider DEI initiatives in higher education. I've already said this. I also think there were genuine questions around Arday that were worthy of investigating. Both those things can be true.

Calling the whole thing a racist invention doesn't hold water. It wasn't originated by Cofnas. He picked up on stuff already circulating. The TES confirm they were researching the story a year ago.

If Brian Cox claimed to be mute til 11, illiterate at 18, raised £5 million for charity, run marathons with a broken leg, been on the 7 Up TV series, and several other unverifiable things (some of which are more serious than those), you can imagine the acres of newsprint that would get.

 

[PurplePenguin]

On reddit they have various subreddits where users can vote on who is morally wrong in a certain situation. Sometimes, people think it is both parties and they state ESH (Everyone Sucks Here).

This seems to be an ESH situation.