When Arday was announced as Cambridge’s professor of sociology of education, he was lauded as the university’s youngest-ever black professor. As Lara Brown writes in her article, Arday’s claims have now been ‘comprehensively debunked’. Arday, the university claims, has been the victim of ‘a vile smear campaign to undermine his credibility’ – or, as it is also known, journalism. As Lara points out: ‘Arday’s ascent is a stunning indictment not just of the incuriosity of Cambridge but its corruption.’ Seemingly, ‘no one ever checked Arday’s academic CV, the papers he’d put out for publication or the data he used’.