jonah-lehrer

Notorious Fabulist Jonah Lehrer Wants to Apologize (So You’ll Buy His Book)

J.K. Trotter · 07/05/16 11:07AM

Remember Jonah Lehrer, the pop-psychology author and New Yorker staff writer who invented Bob Dylan quotes and somehow managed to plagiarize himself? After resigning from his magazine gig in mid-2012, and watching his publisher retract two of his three books, Lehrer laid low for a few years—but not so low as to prevent him from issuing a mealy-mouthed apology during a journalism conference, or signing a fourth book contract with Simon & Schuster. And now he has a new book to sell.

Confirmed Fraud Jonah Lehrer Has Yet Another Book Deal

Leah Finnegan · 11/11/14 05:56PM

Jonah Lehrer, a disgrace and a bullshit artist, has gotten (another?) book deal, because white men fail upward. Lehrer, who was revealed to have fabricated quotations in his 2012 book about Bob Dylan, as well plagiarized himself and others for the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, Wired, the Boston Globe, and the Guardian is working on a book with a UCLA professor about "how we think and behave differently on screens." (How do we behave, Jonah?)

Adam Weinstein · 04/22/14 01:32PM

Jonah Lehrer has a new blog, and Malcolm Gladwell likes it. According to Gawker's computerized plagiarism analysis, it includes two unoriginal statements: "It's a simple question with a complicated answer," and "At first glance, the answer seems obvious." So Lehrer's moved on to clichés now.

It's Time to Give Journalistic Criminals Like Jonah Lehrer the Journalistic Death Penalty

Hamilton Nolan · 02/14/13 12:14PM

Jonah Lehrer, promising young golden boy of Gladwellian think-journalism, has had a bad eight months. Caught plagiarizing himself last June; soon after, caught fabricating quotes, and forced to resign from his plum gig at the New Yorker, and rapidly cast out of the chosen fold to wander the wilderness as a sort of fallen angel. Even the Knight Foundation, which just this week paid Lehrer $20K for his big mea culpa speech, is already saying that it regrets doing so. Some are urging him to donate the money to charity. All in all, his no doubt meticulously-planned return to the spotlight has fallen flat.

Jonah Lehrer Talks Briefly About Being Branded a Liar, Instantly Gets Called a Liar Again

Cord Jefferson · 09/25/12 06:26PM

In a new Los Angeles Magazine story, writer Amy Wallace reaches out to embarrassed self-plagiarist and poet manque Jonah Lehrer to ask him what his future plans are. Lehrer doesn't reveal much outside of the fact that he is "writing something about the mistake and affair myself," but he adds that Wallace is only the third person to contact him for comment in the wake of his scandal. Almost instantly, Joe Coscarelli at Daily Intel was charging Lehrer with yet another mistruth:

The News About Jonah Lehrer Has Not Reached Fauxhemian Brooklyn

Hamilton Nolan · 08/09/12 02:28PM

A couple of weeks ago, hot shot New Yorker wonderboy Jonah Lehrer was forced to resign after he was revealed to have fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his book Imagine. Remember that? Yeah. It was in all the newspapers and websites and radio stations and whatnot. The only place the news did not reach: deepest, coolest, fauxhemian Brooklyn. (And Manhattan. "Brooklyn" is just a brand name.)

Jonah Lehrer Gets the Jayson Blair Treatment

A.J. Daulerio · 07/31/12 02:35PM

About 8 years ago, while in the midst of his book promotional tour after he was caught fabricating and plagiarizing quotes for the New York Times, I did an email interview with Jayson Blair. At the time, this was a great get for a website called The Black Table and our media interview series, even though Blair was trying to sell his book and had pretty much accepted any request without hesitation.

Jonah Lehrer Just Does Not Know How to Do Journalism

Hamilton Nolan · 06/20/12 11:22AM

Yesterday we found out that Jonah Lehrer, the Gladwellesque whiz kid who's The New Yorker's newest staff writer, reused his own old writings for every goddamn blog post he's written for The New Yorker so far. A self-plagiarist, he is. Big time. What's the latest? He is an even bigger time plagiarist (self, and otherwise!) than we knew yesterday. And for it, he should probably be eased out of journalism's highest echelon.