The Floydification of Jason Arday's death

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Following the horrible news – Arday was just 41 and left two children – many public figures instantly blamed the racist media for a “witch hunt”. Among those who blamed journalists were Labour MPs Kater Osamor, Dawn Butler and Tulip Siddiq, who has, of course, faced her own problem with the press, Zarah Sultana, the Green party’s Zack Polanski, Kehinde Andrews, professor of “black studies”, actor Noel Clarke, and of course Ibram X Kendi, who claimed that the media “lynched” Arday.

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The media’s interest was further justified by the fact that Arday sent libel lawyers to journalists who had raised legitimate questions, and even reported one to the police. The investigative journalism was a clear case of “speaking truth to power”, and the most important and crucial intervention came from the Guardian (in contrast, the BBC did not exactly cover itself in glory). If there was a racial element to the media’s obsession, as some have argued, it is that it illustrated how many progressives will overlook all sorts of red flags in the name of equity, the social and legal goal of the British state.

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Others, including Green party leader Zack Polanksi, have called for media regulation laws, the consequences of which they have no understanding. Writer Matt Haig urged Andy Burnham to ensure that journalists face “consequences” for what he calls a “politically motivated campaign”. Novelists Will Self has suggested that journalists who covered the story have their computers seized. As with 2020, it seems that some people have lost their minds.

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At a vigil for Arday in London, where a crowd chanted his name, MP Diane Abbott claimed that “other professors” had waged a three-year “vicious campaign” against Arday because they “just didn’t believe that a black man should be a Cambridge professor”, a very serious allegation made without the slightest bit of evidence.

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