Johann Hari: Back! Back!! Back!!!

"Editor of the Independent Chris Blackhurst today spoke of his "enormous shock" after learning of the accusations of plagiarism against columnist Johann Hari last year.
"Appearing before the Leveson inquiry today, Blackhurst revealed that Hari will be returning to the title in "four or five weeks' time".
"Blackhurst was asked about the company's decision not to terminate Hari's employment after it emerged that the journalist had inserted quotes not given to him directly in the related interview, but from comments made elsewhere.
"It also later emerged that Hari had been editing Wikipedia entries under a different username, himself admitting in an apology in the Independent that at times these edits were made in a "juvenile or malicious" way.
"Today Blackhurst denied a cover-up of the case, saying the company had no prior knowledge of the issue and that he was surprised by the emergence of the accusations.
"[The revelations caused] enormous shock, to myself as somebody who prior to then had mainly been an observer and admirer of Johann's journalism, but much deeper shock to his colleagues at the Independent. It was really profound and totally unexpected"...

"Blackhurst denied protecting Hari, adding: "If you're publicly suspending somebody without pay, his reputation has been severely damaged. He produced cogent reasons ... we had to respect those, I don't think we covered up at all."

From Journalism.co.uk

Hilarious.
The Independent has acted very foolishly on this - as did Hari with his self-serving non-apology - but as the Leveson inquiry shows, if you think Johann is the greatest betrayer of British journalism's high ethical standards, you're nuts, sir.

PS Rumour was JH was going to take a year off through mortal shame...