It's not surprising that it was Bob Dylan fans who caught Lehrer fabricating. The stuff he was saying about Dylan was obviously off – equally ignorant and glib. I remember listening to Terry Gross interviewing him well before the scandal and being shocked at what bullshit he was peddling.<p>Fabrication and plagiarism are what got him fired, and I suppose it has to be that way, but there's an unpleasant corollary: had he been a more careful or even just a less prolific bullshitter, he would still be a celebrated star of science writing.
It's pretty disappointing, I love reading these popular science books. I guess they're fun to read because they're entertaining, now I know how some of these authors are making them entertaining...<p>This was a pretty interesting article in itself to read.
"Self-plagiarizing" isn't a real thing. It's complete nonsense to say you are plagiarizing from yourself.<p>Shocking part is so many people are just falling for this argument without thinking about it. As well as those who think about it, and to join in the thrills of a witch hunt, justify to themselves that this self-plagiarization is not just a real thing, but unethical behavior bordering on criminal.<p>Fabricating quotes and making up facts though is bad and justifies firing and blacklisting. Both practices are unfortunately endemic within contemporary publications, perhaps due to a lack of fact checkers at many publishers.
OT: that was a good example of a print link that is not obnoxious. Unlike most print links, it did not come up with a freakishly wide columns of diminutive text, and had a clear way to get the non-print version so that one can read the comments and other extras lost on the print version. More sites should implement their print links like that.
It's interesting how relatively minor fabrications like these earned Lehrer complete ostracism, yet much huger distortions are told in the political arena daily and no one bats an eye. To pick a random example, "there is no evidence for climate change". I wonder why the double standard?