Another commentator, Bensix, links to a comment that I made about 4 years ago on another blog about an equally fanatical Hari fan who posted on dozens of blogs under the name "Niko":
Niko does seem a bit obsessed with defending Hari. If you google ‘Niko’ ‘Johann Hari’ there are hundreds of results. Usually there follows a mention that Hari went to the Congo last year so he can’t be criticised.He also finds this hilarious riposte to "Niko" on another site:
“Niko” says:He really is a preening knobhead isn't he?
I also only knew about this post because of a link from hari’s website…Actually, you first came here from a Technorati search for “johann hari”. You must be a devoted fan of Mr Hari’s, constantly searching for mention of him on the internet, and dropping by here generously to inform us about his double first and digging up articles from his archive. Of course, the alternative, that you are in fact Mr Hari himself, is also amusing to contemplate…
5 comments:
Interesting stuff. David Rose was fond of using the word 'nutjob' to describe Wikipedians who disagreed with him. Seems like Niko was also partial to this word:
http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/fleetstreet/2007/04/27/uk-libel-in-the-new-republic-plus-journalists-wikipedia-vanity/
Anon- yes their writing style seems very similar.
I can't decide which is more weird - David R/Niko being Johann or him being an actual flesh and blood sycophant. It's the latter, apparently... http://twitter.com/#!/leninology/status/90136461927645184
Shuggy- Yes that's a turn up. I still thing that David Rose is Johann Hari but I'm no longer 100% sure about it.
Having read the Jack of mumblemumble piece, and the comments that followed, taking several hours of my life away in the process, the thing that has fascinated me is the extent to which the internet, and the vast information it contains, has afforded a deconstruction of Hari.
It has been suggested that back in the day Hari reviewed a play, with a character called Niko, that so resonated with him that he applied the name to a pseudonym. A resonance so strong that it caused him to misspell a near sounding character from a different play in a subsequent review. A mistake not made by every other reviewer.
OF course, all this amateur Holmesian reasoning could be selective significance, a faux synchronicity, but it's fascinating.
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