Posted on 03/24/2006 12:22:18 PM PST by summer
NEW YORK Ben Domenech's conservative blog Red America lasted all of three days at the Washington Post. He quit today after numerous examples of alleged plagiarism in his work surfaced. Yesterday, in a seprate matter, he had apologized for calling Coretta Scott King a "Communist" the day after her recent funeral.
The embarrassing episode for the Post culminated Friday afternoon when washingtonpost.com executive editor Jim Brady posted the following notice on the Web site:
"In the past 24 hours, we learned of allegations that Ben Domenech plagiarized material that appeared under his byline in various publications prior to washingtonpost.com contracting with him to write a blog that launched Tuesday.
"An investigation into these allegations was ongoing, and in the interim, Domenech has resigned, effective immediately.
"When we hired Domenech, we were not aware of any allegations that he had plagiarized any of his past writings. In any cases where allegations such as these are made, we will continue to investigate those charges thoroughly in order to maintain our journalistic integrity.
"Plagiarism is perhaps the most serious offense that a writer can commit or be accused of. Washingtonpost.com will do everything in its power to verify that its news and opinion content is sourced completely and accurately at all times.
"We appreciate the speed and thoroughness with which our readers and media outlets surfaced these allegations. Despite the turn this has taken, we believe this event, among other things, testifies to the positive and powerful role that the Internet can play in the the practice of journalism.
"We also remain committed to representing a broad spectrum of ideas and ideologies in our Opinions area."
David Brock, president of the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America, issued a statement in response:
“We at Media Matters are pleased the Ben Domenech will no longer be employed by the Post, but serious questions remain about why he was originally hired. The Post still needs to explain why a partisan operative who admits he is not a journalist and who has a history of racially charged rhetoric, homophobic bigotry, and serial plagiarism was given a platform on Washingtonpost.com in the first place. We look forward to a full explanation of these and related issues by the Post.”
Criticism of the Post's hiring of Domenech had also emerged from within the paper's own ranks. Political reporter Dana Milbank in an online chat at the paper's Web site said today: "What I don't understand (although I haven't inquired) is why the website couldn't recruit somebody with more stature to do the job. This city is crawling with good conservative journalists with lots of heft."
I'm sure if I saw a photo of him I would recall seing him, but I did not immediately place his name as being the name of a male. I guess he is not a big enough celebrity yet in my eyes. :)
He could well have been stealing. But at this moment, I have not read a single claim by an AUTHOR that Ben stole that Author's work.
All we have now is evidence that Ben copied other people's work. We don't know if he had permission to do so. It could simply be that he didn't attribute properly (and realise that attribution is a big deal for writing papers for college where you are being graded on your OWN writing, but in the real world people get other people to write for them all the time, and it's not a crime).
Just some regular over at RedState, who posted apparently pseudonyminously.
We have a local "blogger celebrity" who is likely to fall in a similar fashion. these young guys get to writing in the relative anonymity of psedonym blogging, and think they are ready for prime time.
It seems awfully fishy that the wapo found out about the plagiarism so soon after hiring him. Is it possible they knew ahead of time? Nah, they wouldn't go to these lengths just to embarass Republicans, would they?
/s
Dana Milbank's a boob.
I never heard of Domenech, either.
Yeah, there's a lot of questions still: If it was so easy to find out about, why not sooner, like before the hire decision? And, also -- why did this guy take the position and put himself in that spotlight if he did engage in plagerism? This is all kind of strange...
There is definitely an odor about this whole situation. And it is the wapo, after all.
And we all know what their agenda is , don't we?
Well, now they need to hire another conservative.
I find it highly amusing that he-of all people-has the gall to denounce someone for alleged plagiarism, when he is a self-confessed liar.
In fact, his second career has been predicated upon the fact that he's a professional prevaricator, and he's used that fact to create a little sinecure-right wing hachetman turned Dem. Party lickspittle-that's earned him a tidy profit.
Ewwwwww!
Ironic symmetry escapse most liberals.
LoveDoc
A guy who voluntarily signs up to work for the enemy is immediately suspect.
ROTFLMAO
So what is his screen name here?
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