# Is anyone else following this bizarre Jason Arday story out of Cambridge University? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2026, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289 "2026-08-11T02:18:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/261 "2026-08-20T11:50:13Z")
Just to be clear that’s right now a _petition,_ not a major serious legislation draft yet, right? I see no indication of a great groundswell of support beyond. Besides being IMO a halfbaked idea as pointed our by several prior posts. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/262 "2026-08-20T12:29:59Z")
Actually the main reaction has been to urge some voluntary restraint on the part of the press and a healthy dose of skepticism in swallowing bullshit purveyor’s output. But your take is er, interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/263 "2026-08-20T12:58:56Z")
I bet the royals like the sound of this law. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/264 "2026-08-20T14:38:20Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > We’ll see how far this latest backlash against journalistic freedom goes, but it’s alarming that the idea has gotten any traction. Yeah, that’s a bad idea. Restricting the press for any reason is a bad idea. That does raise the question of what might actually be effective. Public boycott of tabloids? Aren’t there consequences for printing stuff that’s not true as if it’s fact? Because out of 100 articles I have to believe the newsroom had quite a few fabulists of their own. I’m not sure about the law in the UK but are there anything like defamation lawsuits? ---
**Author:** ![3AxisCtrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/ecd19e/32.png) [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/265 "2026-08-20T15:07:09Z")
A relevant quote from Richard Dawkins: > I am bewildered, and not very impressed, by the visceral, naked, irrational hatred spat out by some defenders of Jason Arday. If a Cambridge professor is accused of being an unqualified charlatan, the accusation might be racially motivated. On the other hand it might not, depending on the evidence. The correct question to ask is not, ”What is the colour of his skin” but “Is it in fact true that he is an unqualified charlatan?” Please examine the evidence before leaping to the assumption of racism. > As for the idea that journalists “piled in on him” and “hounded him to his death”, most attacks were against Cambridge University. Jason himself was widely regarded as an unfortunate victim of foolish promotion way beyond his ability to cope. In appointing him to a professorship for which he was manifestly unqualified – in ludicrously describing him as “the best in the world” – certain senior members of the university showed a level of patronising condescension towards black people that could fairly be described as racism, while at the same time making him tragically vulnerable to such attacks as came his way. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/266 "2026-08-20T15:51:14Z")
I would qualify Dawkins’ take in that I would nonetheless take the accusation of of “being an unqualified charlatan” with a lorryfull of salt if among its primary promoters were “race realists”. But if it got traction in public opinion then I _would_ have to look into it to be able to say “we’ve found out (X) and will deal with it to OUR institutional standards, not the demands of the Street.” (And FWIW there is a range between “best in the world” and “unqualified charlatan”. ) ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/267 "2026-08-20T15:57:44Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I’m not sure about the law in the UK but are there anything like defamation lawsuits? Yes, but I think they have a “loser pays” feature that tends to put a damper on such things. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/268 "2026-08-20T15:57:57Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I’m not sure about the law in the UK but are there anything like defamation lawsuits? The common perception in the USA is that libel law in the UK if anything is more favorable to the complainant than here. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/269 "2026-08-20T16:47:19Z")
> [@3AxisCtrl](#): > > If a Cambridge professor is accused of being an unqualified charlatan, the accusation might be racially motivated. On the other hand it might not, depending on the evidence. But we have a lot of evidence that it was. The guy who spearheaded this crusade is a known racist with an axe to grind about Black people in universities, and he intentionally went after Arday to prove his theory that Black people don’t belong at Cambridge. It’s really a leap to think this wasn’t racially motivated. Now, the problem he was exposing was real and we have to separate that from this man’s racist intent. And there’s plenty of blame to go 'round because holding Black people to a lower standard is definitely racist. But yes of course a huge part of this was driven by racism. And the fact that he was Black absolutely belongs in the public discourse. This is a thorny, multi-faceted issue, and the racist crusade against DEI is one facet. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/270 "2026-08-20T16:47:44Z")
If you can access it, there was a good discussion on the BBC’s The Media Show… > **[BBC Radio 4 - The Media Show, Jason Arday: examining the media coverage after...](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030c7s)** > > Questions over journalism, proportionality and the coverage of Jason Arday. ---
**Author:** ![Frilly\_Heck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/90ced4/32.png) [@Frilly\_Heck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frilly_Heck)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/271 "2026-08-20T17:06:58Z")
Here’s an article of interest. > **[Jason Arday's marathon challenge and football claims found to be true after...](https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jason-ardays-marathon-challenge-and-football-claims-found-be-true-after-his-death)** > > Claims the late academic made which were widely derided as false in media and online discourse this month appear to be true, an MEE analysis has found ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/272 "2026-08-20T17:30:33Z")
Dawkins continues his run of being completely wrong on social issues. > [@Dawkins](#): > > If a Cambridge professor is accused of being an unqualified charlatan, the accusation might be racially motivated. On the other hand it might not, depending on the evidence. The correct question to ask is not, ”What is the colour of his skin” but “Is it in fact true that he is an unqualified charlatan?” Please examine the evidence before leaping to the assumption of racism. As mentioned by @Spice_Weasel , this was a racially-motivated campaign in its origin. Then we have that the majority of articles features the words “black” or “black professor” in the headline, often the first words. Finally we can ask whether accusations of plagiarism against other professors and post-docs have captured the same media attention. > [@Dawkins](#): > > As for the idea that journalists “piled in on him” and “hounded him to his death”, most attacks were against Cambridge University. The headlines also featured Jason Arday’s full name and photo in most cases. It would be laughable to suggest the _real_ victim is a faceless institution, were it not for the fact we’re talking about a death here. Also, as mentioned, they continued to write stories and appeal for further testimonies after he’d resigned his position. That’s another reason we’re calling this hounding. ---
**Author:** ![DETXL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/detxl/32/19366_2.png) [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/273 "2026-08-20T19:49:11Z")
Huh. I see an article in the December 8th, 2008 _Basingstoke and North Hampton Gazette_ (“Reserves’ goal glut takes them top”) begins: > Basingstoke Town Reserves 11 > Chalfont St Peter 0 > > Dominic Cunliffe’s team surged to the top of the Suburban League Premier Division table following this rout, which saw Ryan Stephens find the back of the net five times. > > The visitors were simply unable to handle the Town attack and their cause was not helped at half-time, when goal-keeper Jason Arday suffered an epileptic fit and had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance. That took me literally 45 seconds to find, through the arduous task of “I searched for ‘Jason Arday’ on [newspapers.com](http://newspapers.com) before 2025.” I know doing something like that would be an unreasonable imposition for smaller British outlets like the “Guardian,” which unlike the _Middle East Eye_ is always begging me for money. So perhaps in addition to the limit on news stories, the government could subsidize a subscription to Lexis-Nexis or something for struggling local papers as they strive to deliver the hard-hitting stories we really need. You know, stories about people who try to achieve professional success by just making interesting things up. Who would do that? It’s wild. ---
**Author:** ![WalterBishop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@WalterBishop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WalterBishop)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/274 "2026-08-20T19:57:49Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > But it was a vile smear campaign. You wouldn’t be saying that if Jason Arday had been white. ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/275 "2026-08-20T20:58:06Z")
Even if that is the same Arday, that’s well into straight amateur, that is not semi-professional. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/276 "2026-08-20T21:01:52Z")
> [@WalterBishop](#): > > > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > > > But it was a vile smear campaign. > > You wouldn’t be saying that if Jason Arday had been white. You know, seeing the evidence here that a lot of those accusations against Arday were made up… Yeah, he might be. ---
**Author:** ![Frilly\_Heck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/90ced4/32.png) [@Frilly\_Heck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frilly_Heck)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/277 "2026-08-20T21:21:09Z")
If you read the article I posted, it says the following: > Another claim derided online in the past few weeks was that Arday played semi-professional football. In fact he played for two semi-professional clubs, Walton and Hersham FC and Lewisham Borough FC. I don’t know enough about football clubs and what counts as professional to nitpick, but it sure doesn’t sound like he was making things up out of whole cloth, or that the Guardian did much fact checking at all. ---
**Author:** ![DETXL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/detxl/32/19366_2.png) [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2026, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/278 "2026-08-20T21:56:01Z")
I suppose you’re right. Perhaps it is a very common name for English footballers, and we will therefore never know if the epileptic goalkeeper playing for Chalfont St. Peters AFC in 2008 is the same as the Jason Arday who was a [goalkeeper for Battersea Park Rangers in the mid-2000s](https://www.instagram.com/p/DcLPNh7jSNo/) or the Dr. Jason Arday who was [a goalkeeper](https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/lewishamboroughcommunityfc/teams/87166/the-team) for [Lewisham Borough FC](https://kentishfootball.co.uk/news/lewibrid151018). Fortunately I’m just someone with a laptop and a search engine, not a journalist who knows how outrageous Dr. Arday’s claims were without having to investigate them, which makes me comfortable with an assumption or two. Velocity listed both football and epilepsy in a list of apparently incredible claims alongside the marathons Dr. Arday also appears to have actually ran, so I merely found the juxtaposition of the name, position, and condition striking. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2026, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/279 "2026-08-21T01:53:12Z")
> [@WalterBishop](#): > > You wouldn’t be saying that if Jason Arday had been white. …wait. WHAT? What on earth are you talking about? I’d like to politely request you withdraw this. Because my opinions wouldn’t be any different at all if Arday had been white. My larger issue here is with the British tabloid press, who, as I’ve mentioned above multiple times, have been _doing this for decades_. They went after Amy Whitehouse, Princess Diana, Charlotte Church, Paul Gascoigne, they hacked the voice messages of Milly Dowler. Defamatory coverage of Hillsborough. How many of these people were Black? The pattern of attacks here is very similar to what Goobergate uses, especially in their attacks on Zoe Q#inn, who again I’ve been very outspoken on, and who I can assure you is certainly NOT Black. Goobergate is such a _vile_ online movement that even _now_ I don’t use their proper name online lest I summon them to this thread. The smear campaign on Quinn matched the very same smear campaign they did here. It involves a gish gallop of hard-to-investigate allegations that have a whiff of truth about them, but when you dig deeper, many of them have been taken out of context, or are missing nuance, or more often than not, are outright lies. It’s a tactic I’ve learned to identify _instantly_. And that is exactly what we are seeing here. And _that’s_ the reason why I’m posting about it, not because “Jason Arday was Black.” The problem is the more _intense the coverage_, the harder it is to _unlock the truth_. Let’s take just _one_ of the allegations made against Arday here: that he _claimed he was epileptic_. That claim hits different when it’s just one of many other accusations like this: > [@Velocity](#): > > But the reason things piled on Arday so heavily was due to the extreme nature of his lies. I mean, he claimed to have run 600 miles in 6 days, to have had brain tumor + testicular cancer + autism + **epilepsy** and to have finished several marathons despite a fractured leg bone + raised million of pounds for charity + have people harass and threaten him with a knife and pig’s head and that he was mute until age 11, said he played semi-professional soccer, made so much money from snooker his mom thought he was a drug dealer, claimed he was in a BBC television documentary he couldn’t have possibly been in, did 30 marathons in 35 days, etc. That’s an incredulous list of claims. > > If Arday had merely lied and said “I had a 4.0 GPA” when he had a 3.0, or said he ran 150 miles in six days, or said he was a member of Mensa when he wasn’t, and that was the extent of his fibs, nobody would have batted an eye, and the harassment campaign would have probably been either just one day long or nonexistent. Nobody would be trolling with the “I guess you walked the Moon before Neil Armstrong” jokes. Bolding mine. But in isolation? Arday claims he had epilepsy. So what? What exactly am I supposed to do with that information? How am I supposed to verify it? And why does it matter? They throw this stuff out there, and the more they throw, the harder it is to dig down and find the truth. I _tried_. I’m guessing others tried as well. But the search results are poisoned. And Arday, like Quinn, is a comparative _nobody_. Why is a story about a comparative nobody getting around the clock press coverage? Why have we been discussing it for days now? Because that is the entire point. They do this on purpose. Because they are assholes. Nathan Cofnas is an asshole. Cofnas is a professional racist and a professional troll. Arday wasn’t his only target. Just yesterday he accused the rector of Ghent University of “using ChatGPT.” Most of the time the trolling goes nowhere. But with Arday he “caught the big fish.” This is what professional trolls _live_ for. He won the troll equivalent of the Olympic gold. Not only did this kick off a media firestorm, but his victim _ultimately killed himself_. That’s going to earn him _legendary_ status among his peers. We have got to be _better_ than this. These people _know_ what pushes our buttons. So no, for me this has nothing to do with Jason Arday being Black. Again: I politely ask you to withdraw this rather outlandish accusation. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2026, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289/280 "2026-08-21T03:11:24Z")
> [@DETXL](#): > > Velocity listed both football and epilepsy in a list of apparently incredible claims alongside the marathons Dr. Arday also appears to have actually ran “Evidence” cited in the _Middle East Eye_ article includes a couple of PR-style puff pieces and a claim by a person who says he cycled with Arday during _one_ race, falling just a bit short of documenting “30 marathons in 35 days” by an apparent newbie runner who reported working out for “several months”. 🤔 It must be acknowledged however that _Middle East Eye_ is a highly respected source which employs [ only the most distinguished journalists](https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/palestinian-territories/1666179815-palestinian-journalist-stripped-of-award-for-pro-hitler-remarks). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-following-this-bizarre-jason-arday-story-out-of-cambridge-university/1032289.md?page=15)