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July 19, 2012 by William FriersonAt exactly 9:53 AM Central Time, on June 19, Jonah Lehrer ceased to be science writing’s Wunderkind and found himself in the virtual company of journalistic miscreants who’ve straddled and overstepped the lines of what’s ethical in journalism.
Exposed by media critic Jim Romenesko, Lehrer, the prolific writer and author of books such as “Imagine: How Creativity works” and “How we Decide” and blogger of counterintuitive studies and ideas, was found to have repeatedly reused chunks of his previously published work, sometimes slightly modified, in subsequent articles and inserted into blogs, most notably for his new employer, The New Yorker.
The Teacher Gets a Lesson
What rankles in particular appears to be the sheer amount of recycling Jonah’s practiced with his own work, not to mention reports of how long he’s been at it. Evidence posted on various websites shows his duplicated prose appearing in articles from WIRED to New York Times magazine to the Wall Street Journal to his newest gig at the aforementioned New Yorker where he’s been on staff for a mere four weeks . Calling Lehrer everything from “onanist” to “recyclist” and the especially cutting “plagiarist” — kryptonite for any writer with any sort of reputation — offended journalists across the online media tore into Lehrer like a tornado into a small Kansas town once the news broke, leaving the man’s reputation in tatters across the search engines.
“Lehrer” is German for teacher. The teacher has been schooled. Continue Reading
