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Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Quotes

mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

1–10 of 77 posts

Re: Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Quotes

#3
It is interesting that this duplicate submission (submitted 14 minutes after http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4314048 ) is on the front page, while the original submission only has one upvote :)

[edit]: response to th0ma5: As the smiley and the comment should have made clear - this is not a matter of anyone being "too upset" about anything (and you th0ma5 were the only person investigating and talking about karma :)

Btw in spite of the downvotes, the comment is back in positive territory, so presumably, other people disagree with your comments about what is OT

As for the title, the NYT headline doesn't fit into 80 chars, which is why one submission removed "Dylan" and the other removed "New Yorker"

Re: Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Quotes

#5
Just in case you're skimming: this comes at the end of a bit of a saga for Lehrer, who had also been discovered "plagiarizing himself", recycling significant chunks of previously-published work in new New Yorker pieces. No doubt there's been a fine-toothed comb running through everything he's done since that first story broke.

Re: Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Quotes

#6
The full AP story has more info at the bottom. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iEB7lzn2h8...

Among Lehrer's inventions was a quote that first appeared in the famous documentary from the mid-1960s, "Don't Look Back," in which Dylan tells a reporter about his songs that "I just write them. There's no great message." In "Imagine," Lehrer adds a third sentence — "Stop asking me to explain" — that does not appear in the film.

According to Tablet, Lehrer also invented quotes on how Dylan wrote "Like a Rolling Stone" and, when confronted about them, alleged that he had been granted access to an uncut version of "No Direction Home," a Dylan documentary made by Martin Scorsese. Lehrer now says he never saw such footage.

Still curious to see a full account of all the Dylan quotes in question. Anyone have it?

Re: Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Quotes

#7
post #3

It is interesting that this duplicate submission (submitted 14 minutes after http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4314048 ) is on the front page, while the original submission only has one upvote :) [edit]: response to th0ma5: As the smiley and the comment should have made clear - this is not a matter of anyone being "too upset" about anything (and you th0ma5 were the only person investigating and talking about karma…

Well, you have more karma by far, so hopefully you're not too upset :D This link mentions the affiliation so perhaps it just gets more attention because of that. I have been in this spot often, but in general meta-HN stuff is a bit OT, so sorry heh.

Re: Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Quotes

#8
post #2

Sad. Too many people operate with the motto 'its not illegal if you don't get caught'. It nearly always turns out badly for them.

Also sad that this great book is going to be mothballed because the author was lazy in trying to make his otherwise valid points. The quotes were not scandalous, they were about Bob Dylan getting sick of his music and image, and wanting to leave the industry altogether, only to find that once he did, he was more inspired then ever and produced his best and most influential work.

From Ted talks to interviews, and articles, I have found myself drawn to Lehrer's work (and in the best way, usually finding out he wrote a piece only after discovering it). His work on creativity and innovation is very interesting. After making the initial mistake of not being rigorous and forthright about the truth, I don't think it takes away from the underlying knowledge he is trying to share. Also, his letter of resignation was very sincere and took full responsibility of his actions. Kudos, hopefully he learned his lesson and continues in his field of study, I for one find it useful.

Re: Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Quotes

#9
post #4
post #2

Sad. Too many people operate with the motto 'its not illegal if you don't get caught'. It nearly always turns out badly for them.

Well, we know the ones it turns out badly for. Who knows how many out there got away with it.

Nonsurvivorship bias.

Re: Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Quotes

#10
post #6

The full AP story has more info at the bottom. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iEB7lzn2h8... Among Lehrer's inventions was a quote that first appeared in the famous documentary from the mid-1960s, "Don't Look Back," in which Dylan tells a reporter about his songs that "I just write them. There's no great message." In "Imagine," Lehrer adds a third sentence — "Stop asking me to explain" — that does n…

This is the article to which AP refers:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

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