Both William O'Reilly and Jason Arday were accused of plagiarism, but the cases were otherwise very different. O'Reilly copied parts of a student's essay into a footnote-on-history article O'Reilly wrote for an obscure scholarly journal. That is bad, but it was the first instance of plagiarism in more than 25 years of teaching for O'Reilly. It wasn't considered serious enough for him to lose his job. Arday plagiarized another Ph.D dissertation, which is much more serious. Arday's dissertation should never have been accepted, which meant he couldn't have gotten a Ph.D and couldn't subsequently be appointed a professor at Cambridge. Moreover, Arday's plagiarism is only part of the story, perhaps the least important part. He had invented a whole fantasy life and it was beginning to come unraveled. Arday's most remarkable achievement was overcoming his inability to speak, read or write. Questions were being raised as to whether that was true, with former classmates saying he could speak before age 12. Questions were also raised about Arday's running feats, fundraising, past job history and racial harassment. The world was caving in on him and he felt he had no way out other than suicide. Arday sought the limelight as a celebrity scholar, but that was a big mistake when his claims to fame couldn't hold up to scrutiny. O'Reilly had been an unknown professor far from public attention, so it's not surprising few people reacted to his plagiarism.
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