Public humiliation, not shorthand lessons, will be the hardest part of Hari's punishment
Johann Hari is a bit of an ass for thinking he could lift chunks of his interviewees' quotes from earlier books or articles and pass them off as his own work. He's an absolute, grown-up, 32-year-old ass for assuming a fake identity and polluting the Wikipedia entries of journalists he dislikes. He's taken an awful, wounding pasting. But four months' unpaid journalism training (a sentence delivered by Lord Justice Whittam Smith), rather like four months' community service? In an age where Matt Drudge, a graduate of McDonald's front counter, and Guido Fawkes, a one-time rave organiser's spokesman, can rule blogging roosts without a moment of formal instruction, that seems a bit ripe, going on totally out of time. And schoolboy imbecilities on the web under cover of anonymity? Welcome to the world's biggest unreformed conniving club.
Hari's biggest punishment, in fact, is that he's been scoffed at so much. Can he, after such a roasting, get back to columnar business as usual? It's really a test of character, not training. Those of us who ? with Ken Clarke ? believe in the power of redemption will be hoping he makes it through a long night of the soul and shorthand.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/18/hari-fake-quotes-training-peter-preston
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