Johann Hari: Brand Management

Eagle-eyed comrade Huw Lemmey has spotted Johann Hari's amazon.com bio for his book, Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days Of The War On Drugs.

Johann Hari became a columnist and reporter for The Independent at the age of 23, and he has also been a contributing editor at Slate. He has reported from dozens of countries, and has won several leading journalism awards, including, twice, the Newspaper Journalist of the Year award from Amnesty International UK, and the Stonewall Journalist of the Year. He currently produces Russell Brand's podcast and YouTube channel. Hari's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Slate, The New Republic, and The Nation.

Some things are screamingly noticeable by their absence here; like Hari leaving The Independent under a rather large cloud, and subsequently losing his Orwell Prize for Political Writing for bringing shame upon his profession.

Hari's fall from grace in 2011 came after he admitting plagiarism, harassment of other journalists and of committing the supreme crime of 'making lots of stuff up'.

One can only wonder why he hasn't been stripped of his other awards for journalism.

But what's this that Johann clearly considers one of his most notable achievements; 'He currently produces Russell Brand's podcast and YouTube channel.'

Zoink!

Here is said YouTube channel, The Trews.

Welcome to my channel and my daily show 'The Trews' where I give you the true news so you don't have to invest any money in buying newspapers that charge you for the privilege of keeping your consciousness imprisoned in a tiny box of ignorance and lies.

Probably not a good idea then, dear Russell, to collaborate on it with a journalist who is now best-known for being outed as a serial liar.

Nor is it a good idea, dear Johann, to collaborate with a man who is quite clearly a political idiot.

It has been rumoured that Hari was ghostwriting Brand's new book, called - no irony here - Revolution.

Some suspect that Hari has assisted Brand with his political tracts/rants, such as his New Statesman essay, Russell Brand On Revolution, though they are so incoherent - literally and politically - it's hard to believe this (apparently the person who subbed his Guardian piece on the 2011 riots 'still breaks out in a cold sweat whenever the original copy is mentioned').

Conversely and perversely, some of Morrissey's recent public statements on True To You and his lyrics about the state of the world are so garbled and politically puerile they seem to bear the influence of his new BFF Russell Brand.

Brand also gave a puff quote for Owen Jones' The Establishment - presumably the publisher thinks the 39 year-old appeals to ver kids - though this appears to have been removed from the front cover.

[Edit: The quote in full reads; “Owen may have the face of a baby and the voice of George Formby, but he is our generation’s Orwell”].

Presumably the publisher realised many potential readers think Brand is a bit of a joke.

Jones, of course, replaced Hari as the youngish, leftish and gayish columnist on The Independent. Though Owen left for The Guardian of his own freewill.

I've wondered before how often Hari has helped Elton John with his articles on gay issues and HIV/Aids (they have co-authored at least one piece).

Soon after waving goodbye to The Independent, Johann visited Elton at his house in the south of France, who he may have met when Elton 'guest-edited' The Independent.

By serendipity, Hari's new opus comes with a puff quote from Sir Elton; 'An absolutely stunning book. It will blow people away.'

In 2012 Milo Yiannopoulos asked; 'Who is bankrolling Johann Hari?'

Though as Chasing The Scream - which has taken three years of globetrotting, researching and writing - is published by Bloomsbury, the answer is most likely to be 'Harry Potter'.

This is all sounding like an incestuous circle jerk, isn't it?

The sort of thing Mr Hari writes gay porn stories about, in fact.