[Update, 6/10/13: On Friday, Julie Bosman at The New York Times reported that Jonah Lehrer had signed with Simon & Schuster. As far as I know, nobody has disclosed what Lehrer was paid. The signing by a major publisher is, in my view, an affront to journalists who have been playing by the rules.]
The disgraced science writer Jonah Lehrer, who has admitted to lying, fabricating quotes, and other mortal journalistic sins, is now shopping a book proposal–on love.
This news comes from Daniel Engber at Slate, who credits industry sources. Engber cleverly repeats a Lehrer phrase about how "eighty percent of success is showing up," and that "grit" as the thing that "allows you to show up, again and again and again." Each time Engber uses the phrase, he links to a different place in which Lehrer said the same thing.
Most critics have suggested that Lehrer is finished as a journalist, doubting his credibility even when he tried to confess to his sins. That happened in February, at a Knight Foundation conference, where Lehrer said, "I’ve come to believe that, if I’m going to regain some semblance of self-respect, then I need the help of others. I need my critics to tell me what I’ve gotten wrong, if only so that I can show myself I’m able to listen."
This is transparently self-serving. He wants to show that he can listen. That falls far short of earning back the trust he squandered. And maybe Lehrer's critics aren't interested in helping him regain his self-respect. We're busy with our own work.
I don't know if that is actually what Lehrer said, by the way. I don't have the quote in my notes. I took it from a transcript of Lehrer's talk on his own website.
Astonishingly, the transcript is partly garbled. I can't even guess why a person seeking to regain trust would post a garbled transcript of his apology on his website. Perhaps grit is the thing that allows you to break the rules again and again and again.
-Paul Raeburn
[Thanks to Maryn McKenna, whose Facebook post alerted me to Engber's story.]
Leave a Reply