What do you know, the Domenech controversy can get worse

March 24, 2006

The progressive blogosphere has collectively dropped a very big hammer on the Washington Post’s blogger-in-residence Ben Domenech. At this point, the takedown is complete; the Post’s decision has been exposed as plainly misguided. The only question that remains is whether the Post will suffer the humiliation of firing the far-right activist shortly after hiring him, or suffer the humiliation of not firing him after all we’ve learned the past several days.

It was bad enough when we knew the Post had given one of the premier jobs in online journalism to a 24-year-old conservative activist, but yesterday the controversy snowballed when we learned the Post had given one of the premier jobs in online journalism to a 24-year-old plagiarist.

Indeed, over the course of Domenech’s writing career, it seems we’re dealing with a man who habitually lifted everything from political news, to humor, to movie reviews. The full list of every available example (so far) is too long to run here, but Salon has a couple of pieces on Domenech’s plagiarism, as does Atrios, and Hunter.

This isn’t just a couple of isolated incidents in which a writer got sloppy. These are multiple instances of outright plagiarism that span his career. Given his youth and relative inexperience, it seems there are nearly as many articles that Domenech lifted as pieces he wrote on his own.

Needless to say, it’s become quite a fiasco. It reflects poorly on the Washington Post (which didn’t need to pick a right-wing writer, and then ended up with the wrong one), on Domenech (who is finding his credibility, now in shreds, at a point in which it may never recover), and on conservative blogs in general (which now feel compelled to defend plagiarism).

Post editors have said their commitment to having “a social conservative voice” is so strong, they’re willing to forgive Domenech’s over-the-top, hateful rhetoric (Coretta Scott King was a “communist,” for example). But if the Post is also prepared to accept a plagiarist, the paper may find its reputation and standards in the same shape as Domenech’s credibility.

Conservative family values strike again, further eroding what it means to be a “conservative”..which now means financially and ethically reckless.

I hope the Post keeps Domenech on ,….so he can twist slowly slowly in the wind..under the strain of daily having to meet deadlines with the novel burden of having to come up with his own stuff under a cloud of mistrust and accountability.

  • The post put their reply to the in the Style section page C7.

    “Jim Brady, executive editorof Washington-post.com, said Domenech was hired because ‘we were completely unrepresented by a social conservative voice.’ He said his goal ‘is to provide voices from as many perspectives as possible’ and that Domenech is not intended to balance anyone in particular on his staff.” – Howard Kurtz

    So There!

    Though how a guy who promotes cocaine use qualifies as a ‘Social Conservative’ is beyond me.

    Domenech’s sort of apology for calling King a communist was “‘I regret using the term because I think it’s been overblown,’ Domenech said. But he said that King worked with organizations affiliated with communists in the 1950s and 1960s.” So he is not sorry for calling King a communist, just sorry for it being ‘overblown’. So he did nothing wrong, it’s just liberals getting too upset.

    p.s., Daily Kos, Atrios, Crooks & Liars, and Talking Points Memo all got direct credit in the article. None for us 🙁

  • Gah!

    I even previewed it.

    The Post put their reply to the Blogsphere in the Style section today, page C7.

  • Next step on the right, like clockwork, will be the rapid shift to the “I never heard of this guy. Why are they blowing it out of proportion?” phase (cf Gannon, Abramoff, Claude Allen, …). Watch for it.

  • One could also mention the rightwing sliming of Doris Kearns Goodwin and, a few years ago, ML King for plagiarism. But one gets awful tired of pointing out winger hypocrisy after a while. Those barrels are so full of fish, it makes one’s head spin.

  • I hear George Dooche (ex of NASA) is still looking for a gig. Afterall, he only lied on his resume.

  • I accidently posted my comment for this thread on yesterdays Ben thread. Anyone interested my read it here.
    It is comment #17

  • Was Ben one of those college students who started and ended a paper in quotations, then had one footnote?

  • Ben has responded to these allegations of plagiarism, saying,

    “These are the times that try mens’ souls. I am not a crook. True, I was for plagiarism before I was against it, but I will not wait until the evidence against me is a mushroom cloud. No one could have anticipated the breach of my reputation. I will eat the livers of those making these charges against me with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Heck of a job Washington posties.”

  • Domenech is merely more obvious than the rest of these droolers. I have yet in over 40 years to find one single one of these bozos capable of independent thought and of expressing more than five words insequence that make sense that are their own. I remember back in college when the president of the local YAFchapter got caught not only using plagiarism himself but of running a “research center” that was an early “get’cher papers here” term paper mill. And he cried “liberal persecution” all the way to the hearing where he was expelled.

    “Far Right Winger”: three words that can be consolidated into one: Hypocrite.

    These guys are all Elmer Gantry without the bedroom skills (since their “sex education” at home has left them not knowing what goes on behind the zipper of their fly, and unable to even have fun alone since they’re afraid of growing hair on their palms ).

    Watching Domenech demonstrate The Peter Principle for wingers is really quite amusing. I hope the WaPo continues their little farce, so everyone can realize they’re no longer the paper of Ben Bradlee and Woodstein.

  • The great irony in this is that the Post hired Domenech to get some nonpartisan cred – and now Domenech is going to crash and burn and the Post is going to have to can him, which will only further convince the bloggers on the Right that the Post caters to the Left.

  • It’s another sad day in our country’s downward spiral into the darkness. That a paper like the WaPo could even get to the point of considering employing a person like Ben is ridiculous. That they have yet to realize how damaging to their credibility this is, just shows you how far they have already sunk, and how many other hacks are on their staff. I will never read the WaPost again. The only way to end this stupidity is to take away people’s money. I recommend everyone cancel their subscription.

  • Michelle Malkin weights in on the Ben fiasco. She thinks it is clear that Ben plagiarized and that he should resign. However, she can’t admit this without taking a couple of shots at Ben’s detractors.

    But now the determined moonbat hordes have exposed multiple instances of what clearly appear to me to be blatant lifting of entire, unique passages by Ben from other writers. .

    Not only does she destain those who proved to be right, she has sympathy for those who proved to be wrong.

    I certainly understand the impulse on the Right to rally around Domenech.

    She closes with the following admonishment.

    The bottom line is: I know it when I see it. And, painfully, Domenech’s detractors, are right. He should own up to it and step down. Then, the Left should cease its sick gloating and leave him and his family alone.

    Just for the sake of reference here is a Google search for Gore and one for Kerry, on Malkin’s web site. See if you can find her gloating. I personally don’t have the stomach to go through that much bile.

  • Ed, I was composing my post when you posted. I wasn’t reading your mind, at least not this time.

  • “the Left should cease its … gloating” – Malkin

    Nope, never intend to cease. You have been doing it for far too long to try to tell us what to do, you little sick b***h.

  • call me naive, but who should care whether coretta king was a commie, or a strap-on wearing bulldyke for that matter. as far as i know, that’s still legal (o.k., maybe strap-ons are illegal, but only in certain states.)

    did she give secrets to the enemy? did she advocate violent overthrow of the u.s. government? did she fuck the shit out of condi? (o.k., see above.)

    did what she have to say make sense? (i don’t know enough about her to judge, but i’ll admit she didn’t strike me as being an astute political thinker.) that should be the question.

    brother ben spouted enough utter bullshit to be disqualified from his position at the almost-*post*. whether or not he he copied from his neighbor or was a home-schooled bedwetter is beside the point.

    your pal,
    blake

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