Michael Moynihan is a New York-based writer and journalist. His 2012 article in Tablet magazine about Jonah Lehrer’s plagiarism in his book Imagine: How Creativity Works led to Lehrer’s intense, merciless online public shaming. At the time, Moynihan was a struggling blogger who needed a scoop when he found himself questioning the veracity of certain quotations in a pivotal section of Lehrer’s book centered around musician Bob Dylan. Moynihan’s fact-checking led him to discover that Lehrer had embellished the wording of several Dylan quotes. Moynihan described himself to Jon Ronson as a “schlub” who was just doing his job. He claimed to feel bad about doing journalism that could hurt Lehrer’s career—until he realized that Lehrer, a well-to-do former Rhodes scholar, lived in a two-million-dollar home in Los Angeles. Moynihan expresses no pride about his role in Lehrer’s public shaming, but he believes that shaming a transgressor or wrongdoer is sometimes necessary.
Michael Moynihan Quotes in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
The So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed quotes below are all either spoken by Michael Moynihan or refer to Michael Moynihan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2
Quotes
We all have ticking away within us something we fear will badly harm our reputation if it got out—some “I’m glad I’m not that” at the end of an “I’m glad I’m not me.” […] Maybe our secret is actually nothing horrendous. Maybe nobody would even consider it a big deal if it was exposed. But we can’t take that risk. So we keep it buried.
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Michael Moynihan Quotes in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
The So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed quotes below are all either spoken by Michael Moynihan or refer to Michael Moynihan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
We all have ticking away within us something we fear will badly harm our reputation if it got out—some “I’m glad I’m not that” at the end of an “I’m glad I’m not me.” […] Maybe our secret is actually nothing horrendous. Maybe nobody would even consider it a big deal if it was exposed. But we can’t take that risk. So we keep it buried.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
