Subscriptions
Read our Monthly Magazine
And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
There are moments that demand we remain measured, thoughtful and nuanced.
This isn’t one of those moments.
Our communities are seething in righteous indignation and anger at the lynching of Professor Jason Arday.
We are raging – and we should be. And we must. But what’s important is that we channel this anger constructively and honour the family of Jason Arday in the wake of his death, after failing to protect him in life.
A Racist Media Hounding
The media hounded Jason to his death. I say it again: a racist media intent on their pound of flesh hounded Jason until it became unbearable for him.
We expect this from the usual right-wing offenders.
But other outlets and individuals masquerading as our allies jumped on the bandwagon. This, for me, was simply unforgivable. According to those who knew Jason, some have said that this might have been the catalyst that pushed him to the breaking point.
Wading through an avalanche of baseless lies, hate and opportunism online, he might have expected to find some allies. He didn’t, or certainly not enough.
I’m proud that The Voice stood unequivocally with Professor Arday from the outset. He must have been broken to see other prominent voices from our community, however, condemning him.
At this point, let me make something clear: spare me the recycled talking points about “legitimate questions” regarding Jason Arday’s academic credibility.
Facts speak louder than conjecture. Irresponsible editors know this too. It wasn’t a mistake that they made in going after Jason. It was an editorial choice. Please understand this and recognise how the game is played. This wasn’t a tragic accident. It was the result of a malicious and deliberate campaign.
Jason Arday qualified as a professor before Cambridge. He then successfully met the criteria to win the post at Cambridge. And that was when the campaign against him truly began. Not in July, but three years ago.
Despite Jason being targeted and held to a level of scrutiny that no White professor would ever face, he was cleared of plagiarism. And as I wrote previously, that should have been the end of it.
Because what we really had, in objective media terms, was a non-story.
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
Except Nathan Cofnas, who has now been suspended from his current post, backed by a vile race-obsessed network of Epstein-linked eugenicists and financiers, had other ideas.
In a coordinated campaign, those intent on manifesting their ethno-supremacist ideas in academia made it their mission to target Jason because they viewed him as vulnerable.
When this was happening, our community should have closed ranks around Jason. We should have, but we didn’t. And some actively threw him to the wolves.
Frankly, at this point it didn’t matter what Jason had said about his past. This was obviously a smear campaign with racist motivations, clearly driven by an individual with White supremacist views and an axe to grind, backed by a network with serious clout and power.
It wasn’t rocket science to see this malicious lynch mob clearly for what they were. But again, those of us in our communities who should have known better opted to serve their own prestige and proximity to power, rather than do the right thing.
A Story That Never Justified the Frenzy
And what have we since learned? The mob knew that Jason Arday had not committed plagiarism. So instead, they fixated and misrepresented other parts of his past.
But Jason did run marathons, as we have since learned. He did help to collectively raise large sums for charity. He did play semi-pro football.
At best, and I choose my words carefully here, there might have been some questions about past affiliations with other institutions.
But would the answers to these questions have pointed to something nefarious? Could the answer to those questions have become confused over time in the mind of someone neurodivergent? Could it have been a combination of both and/or some exaggeration on a CV which we might all have committed at one time or another?
We may never know.
Jason Arday: We Must Rage – Rage Against the Journalism of Cruelty
The death of the academic shows the casual conversion of humiliation into entertainment by a media running on monetised hate and cruelty
But the reality is that what we were left with when we look at things clearly was a non-story, by any reasonable media measure. ‘Professor cleared of plagiarism’ does not justify two hundred or so national news articles. Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future, as the saying goes.
What the story really was was our brother, Jason Arday, being hounded to death by a vicious media mob without a shred of humanity, common decency or basic journalistic integrity or vigour between them. Shame on them. I say again, shame on them.
Media Apologies Too Little, Far Too Late
Some in the media have realised this, and far too late. They’ve since gone on a deleting spree of their previous posts and are in damage limitation crisis mode.
One of the leading protagonists in this horrible saga claim they went to confession.
Other more liberal outlets have offered mealy-mouthed ChatGPT-written apologies. Not from any sense of real conviction, but because they realise that they will never be looked at in the same light again.
Some have half run half apology editorials, while still claiming that there were legitimate questions for Jason Arday to answer in the name of press freedom.
But please, spare us the self-righteous word salads. No one is buying it, and they should pay a price for their words. If the price is credibility left in ruins, then so be it.
None of them cared about the long-term impact their words would have on Jason Arday and his family. Why then is their humanity more deserving?
After Jason’s passing the media have continued to hound his family. Imagine that. Nathan Cofnas doesn’t think we are human. And evidently, so too do those journalists that continue to hound his family. Their depravity knows no bounds.
The Campaign Is Bigger Than One Man
Therefore, supporting Arday’s family is vital. So far, a fundraiser posted by Sir Patrick Vernon shows the community rallying to support them. You can too, here.
Nathan Cofnas has now been suspended from his post. But now is not a time to celebrate. He might have broken the “story’ but the campaign is bigger than him.
We now need to examine and understand the ideologies, motivations and power behind this rancid movement that sacrificed Jason Arday on the altar of their culture war. We need to understand it and prepare to defend against it.
Jason was not the first to be targeted and he won’t be the last.
We absolutely need to demand a public enquiry into what happened. Accountability matters.
There Will Be Another Jason Arday
There is no check to fetter power when unfettered power resides in the check
We Must Protect the Black Academics Who Come Next
We also need to set up support mechanisms for other Black professors, academics and educators to safeguard their wellbeing and their lives in the future. There is no political will for this from the top. We must make it happen.
And I believe we need to fundamentally need to re-examine our relationships with other media outlets and individuals who clearly do not care if we live or die.
This is sport to them. They will move on. But this is life for us. We cannot carry on in the same way after this. Jason Arday’s life meant something to so many people. He didn’t have to die, but he did. Please let his passing, if nothing else, motivate us into action.
Jason Arday did not have legitimate questions to answer.
We, as a community, however, do.
This article was reprinted with kind permission from The Voice