Full Statement by Conservative Blogger Who Resigned from Washington Post re Alleged Plagiarism

redstate.com ^ | March 24, 2006 | Ben Domenech

[daku]

If you're innocent , stand and fight

If not, turn tail and run

disclaimer : I have not read his blog or past columns, I

did read this post and found it hard to follow

If you write for a living, I hope for the sake of you and

your dependants that this post was also plagiarized

[Tribune7]

Most things done as a 17-year-old college student should be ignored.

[summer]

LOL...I thought his essay here was fine. I'm not sure what you found hard to follow. :)

[CobaltBlue]

Sorry Ben, I don't believe you. You plagerized numerous times, you got caught, and now you need to go.

And quit whining!

[Rodney King]

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004834.htm

[Echo Talon]

I don't know anything about this guy. Can you provide any specific examples of his plagiarism, and cite your sources?

Check out michellemalkin.com she has a detailed piece on this. Looks like did lift some material.

[builder]

One thing for sure about conservatives;We hold ourselves and our brethren to a higher standard.While this works against us politically quite frequently,it is part of why we feel better about ourselves and our positions.

I never feel comfortable supporting something or someone that doesn't pass the "pit in my stomach test".We can't bitch about the Democrat's lack of consistency and moral ethics, without holding ourselves to a higher standard.

[American Quilter]

Thanks--I'll read it.

[summer]

Well, they went back to that because he IS still quite young (24, I believe, barely out of college), and, I think the college newspaper actually went to the trouble of publicly putting out an article accusing him of plagiarism, in lockstep with the liberals who had been putting forth that argument.

It seems to me people like Michelle Malkin maybe should have talked to him first, and that the Washington Post could have suspended his blog whil investigating, and publicly supported him, if that was in fact their position privately to him.

I'm sure anyone who is determined can find something on a person, or at least make it look like they did.
So, whether he was a plagiarist or not, I don't know, but, it sounds to me like he understands what happened to him and why, and it wasn't exactly a case of someone going out time and time again to plagiarize. I think he made mistakes, but right now I am not at all convinced he is a full-fledged Jayson Blair plagiarist.

And, I am glad he will keep blogging at his site (the one he co-founded).

[American Quilter]

Okay, I've read the Malkin piece and the one she linked to, and the evidence does appear damning. Thanks for providing the info.

[summer]

And, what do you think of his essay here?

[LoveDoc]

"Whoever they hire will be trashed, I wouldn't want the job."

That's besides the point.

Liberals are powerless.

He was only forced out after conservatives turned on him.

The Washington Post should bring in someone more conservative just to tick off all those liberals trashing them. (I'm not kidding!)

[American Quilter]

It provided context for the accusations and refuted the ones he cited. I'm sympathetic, especially considering what he's gone through at the hands of the liberal attack machine, but Michelle Malkin provides evidence of plagiarism that appears convincing.

As builder said, we conservatives do hold ourselves and our bretheren to a higher standard (actually, the libs have no standards at all--consider their reactions to Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose), so if both sides of the story are presented correctly here, his past wrongs have come back to haunt him.

[summer]

Re your post #22 -- But, I meant to add, you do make a valid point. Thanks. :)

[Echo Talon]

Yes! they need to hire another conservative! Just hope the new guy or girl has thick skin and a squeeky clean life.

[summer]

Well, why didn't Michelle blog to him and ask him? Or, why doesn't she blog to him now and ask him? He has his own site (not at the Wapo).

The Wapo still could have done a better job vetting, too; and conservatives could have talked to him first, whether they are right or not.

I think he wrote a good essay here. It is not a case of Jayson Blair, like:

Yes, I plagiarized, and by the way, I'm a coke addict, too. Sorry, readers!

It's not looking like that at all.

[funkywbr]

Great!

The WP hires a Con they know in advance will make Cons look bad and fire him to put the cherry on top of evil Cons.

[FreedomSurge]

Typical conservative response is to condemn the guy before he has a chance to present his case. I for one want to see how well his explanation holds up.

[GretchenM]

bttt

[summer]

if both sides of the story are presented correctly here, his past wrongs have come back to haunt him.

Yeah, but there issues of others' involvement, and issues of control by others that he's bringing up here. So, I'm not sure it is accurate to charactize all that happened as "his" past wrongs. It sounds like some other people made mistakes and so on, and so on, and, things pile up, as we all know.