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Monday, July 30, 2012

Books Jonah Lehrer Resigns from the New Yorker After Fabricating Bob Dylan Quotes

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 11:26 AM

I was surprised that the New Yorker' kept Jonah Lehrer around after it was revealed that he was repurposing work from earlier pieces. I was especially surprised that the New Yorker hung onto him when Edward Champion found that Lehrer plagiarized from Malcolm Gladwell.

Now, Lehrer's time at the New Yorker is finally over. It took an investigation from Tablet about Bob Dylan quotes that appear in Lehrer's book Imagine. At least three of them couldn't be sourced. Tablet reached Lehrer for comment:

Over the next three weeks, Lehrer stonewalled, mislead and, eventually, outright lied to me. Yesterday, Lehrer finally confessed that he has never met or corresponded with Jeff Rosen, Dylan’s manager; he has never seen an unexpurgated version of Dylan’s interview for No Direction Home, something he offered up to stymie my search; that a missing quote he claimed could be found in an episode of Dylan’s “Theme Time Radio Hour” cannot , in fact, be found there; and that a 1995 radio interview, supposedly available in a printed collection of Dylan interviews called The Fiddler Now Upspoke, also didn’t exist. When, three weeks after our first contact, I asked Lehrer to explain his deceptions, he responded, for the first time in our communication, forthrightly: “I couldn’t find the original sources,” he said. “I panicked. And I’m deeply sorry for lying.”

Lehrer has finally resigned from the New Yorker. That certainly went on for much longer than it had to.

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Comments (9) RSS

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Sorry to go against the Ameritard consensus as I realize I'll be offending many, but virtually everyone on the New Yorker staff are a bunch of lying douchetards.

No exceptions. Sorry, but Seymour Hersh has never impressed me, especially when he consistently fails to follow up on his stories.

Posted by sgt_doom on July 30, 2012 at 11:34 AM

Never make shit up about Bob Dylan.

--Abraham Lincoln

Posted by mrbarky on July 30, 2012 at 12:05 PM

@ 1, you have a long, long record of posting false, screechy diatribes at Slog. Do you think any reasonable person cares what you think about the New Yorker?

Posted by Matt from Denver on July 30, 2012 at 12:38 PM

@2 No kidding. I hope Mr. Zimmerman's lawyers sue this kid back to illiteracy for using their client's fame in a fraudulent enterprise.

Posted by Sir Vic on July 30, 2012 at 1:09 PM

He should get into theater.

That or work at Faux News.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on July 30, 2012 at 1:24 PM

if dylan did say it, he should have.

Posted by Max Solomon on July 30, 2012 at 2:05 PM

did'NT. jesus, fingers, get it together.

Posted by Max Solomon on July 30, 2012 at 2:06 PM

Well, I was pretty sad when Johann Hari was suspended (and later resigned) from in part because of taking liberties with quotations, but the name Jonah Lehrer just doesn't ring a bell. I guess I just haven't had that much use for the New Yorker since they published Atul Gawande's artfully crafted defense of for-profit multipayer healh insurance back in January 2010, and I've kind of forgotten who writes for them.

Posted by PCM on July 30, 2012 at 5:56 PM

Glad this lightweight is finally getting his due! I never drank the Kool Aid and never understood the fuss. I found him to be totally unoriginal & uninspired. Now I see why. Toss that preppie onto the street and be done with him!

Posted by Confluence on July 30, 2012 at 10:49 PM