The tragic apparent suicide of Cambridge Prof. Jason Arday, following what appeared to be at least credible public allegations that he had engaged in false biographical claims, plagiarism, and (potentially) data falsification, has led people to argue that some in the media misbehaved in the matter. To quote Michelle Goldberg in the N.Y. Times yesterday ("After a Scholar's Awful Death, Mistaken Calls for Censorship"),
In the wake of Arday's death, many on the left are blaming the media. "The media lynched Jason Arday," declared Ibram X. Kendi. The head of a Cambridge college called for an official inquiry into the "media onslaught."
Important British progressives, including Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, and several Labour M.P.s, signed an open letter demanding some sort of official oversight of journalistic decision making. "Self-regulation of the press has comprehensively failed," it said. The writer Will Self called, in an open letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, for the police to begin "impounding computers," presumably belonging to people involved in covering the scandal.
I think it's often helpful in such situations to broaden the frame a bit, beyond the particular cause célèbre before us. It's human nature to be influenced in such situations by one's feelings towards the particular person involved, whether sympathy or antipathy. Looking at a wider range of examples can help us get beyond this bias.
