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

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

[Right Wing Professor]

Where's the college professor who should have been advising those college kids running and writing the college newspaper?

He's there to give advice and sign forms. He's not there to vet the content. That would be impossible.

[summer]

Maybe you drill it into students. I think my question above, about the MIA college newspaper professor/advisor, is a valid one.

[summer]

It's not impossible for adults to do their job. A college professor who is the faculty advisor at the college newspaper or college radio station has actual responsibilities beyond blindly signing budget forms. Ever hear of "teaching" at a college? Maybe you have; maybe others have not.

[summer]

Not only that -- but where's the professional Washington Post vetter in this hiring decision? Outside of academia adults have real jobs, too. Though you wouldn't know it from some adults.

[summer]

And, I think he wrote a good essay under enormous pressure. Maybe there is more to come; maybe not. I don't know.

[Right Wing Professor]

A college professor who is the faculty advisor at the college newspaper or college radio station has actual responsibilities beyond blindly signing budget forms

I'm faculty advisor to a couple of clubs; for a long time I was advisor to CR. I take it seriously, but it's not my role to police all their activities. If it were, they'd never get anyone to volunteer.

Our college newspaper is typically 8 - 12 pages, 5 days a week during the semester. You think an unpaid faculty volunteer can afford to fact-check every issue? It would be more than a full time job for one person.

[summer]

But this kid was asking a question about what he was doing. Surely a professor to a few clubs can be called upon to explain what is and is not an "inspired by" piece when a student is asking about it.

[Right Wing Professor]

But this kid was asking a question about what he was doing.

You actually buy his excuses? Good grief.

Surely a professor to a few clubs can be called upon to explain what is and is not an "inspired by" piece when a student is asking about it.

You actually think Mr. Domenech wasn't told, in grisly detail, what is and isn't plagiarism? Have you ever taken a college writing course, or worked at a newspaper, and not been told about this?

For the last 10 years I've maintained a web page on Martin Luther King's plagiarism. It's gotten me an incredible amount of abuse (though Michael Savage also mentions it on his radio show every so often, so that's kewl). But, having roasted a liberal icon for plagiairizing his writing, think I'm going to let a conservative flame-thrower off the hook for the same thing?

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you very much. But I AM busy, just now. LOL.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article: "2nd Report on the Campaign for the NC 11th District"

[summer]

Maybe you are being way too hard on this college kid, and maybe I am being way too soft, and maybe the truth is somewhere in-between.

Or, maybe I'm right. I don't know his teachers or what he was taught or not taught. Or what he thought or didn't think.

But, to compare plagiarism of Martin Luther King, as you claim exists, with a college newspaper article written by a college student, who checked with his fellow college student editors, seems to me a comparison that is a bit off, to say the least.

[summer]

But here is something I do believe, which may go to the Doe Eye post: The Washington Post can surely fire any non-union employee it wants, for any reason or no reason, and their motives for firing could include, I would guess, public statements of its non-union employees.

However, it seems to me those public statements of a new employee should have been part of the interview process if they were so easily found by others so quickly.

And what I think the Washington Post had on its mind, more than doing its job in the interview and hiring process, was this: Its own bottom line.

That newspaper seems to me it was so eager to say: Hey, everyone, look at us! A newspaper with a YOUNG blogger on board! We're hip! We're cool! OTHER NEWSPAPERS MAY BE AT DEATH'S DOOR -- BUT NOT US! WE'RE THE TALK OF THE BLOGOSHPERE NOW!

In a way, it's the same motivation and overzealous attitude that led Arianna Huffington to recently get George Clooney on her blog even though she didn't actually get him to blog.

The Washington Post seems to have tossed out its usual procedures to get this young kid, too.

Maybe next time the Washington Post will spend more time looking at what is already out there before they hire. And if it doesn't matter, then tell people at the onset: We read this kid's college writings, and concluded he made some mistakes, but, he's now a political blogger and we're going to see where this new road goes.

But the Washington Post did not think to do that. The blogosphere did all the background checking that adults employed by the Post didn't. And, of course, as is characteristic of the blogosphere, added their own comments.

Maybe some of those comments were correct. But maybe not.

[summer]

Also see: Blogger Ben Domenech Strikes Back; Calls Post Editors 'Fools'

[summer]

Lots of interesting comments about this whole matter on The Washington Post Blog HERE. A number of readers want James Brady to resign for not doing his job at the onset here.

[summer]

Thanks for your post on that other thread.

Captain's Quarters is saying a movie review this conservative blogger plagiarized when he was 19 (not 17, like the other examples), is too much to ignore. And, I think it appeared in the National Review Online or somewhere like that.

The blogger claims he wrote this movie review before the other writer's review, but data bases state otherwise, according to the conservative blogger's accusers.

So, who knows. Or, who knew? It seems one strange movie review at 19 years old can ruin one's career at the Washington Post at age 24. I guess that's the brave new world we live in on the information superhighway. From the conservative blog, Captain's Quarters:

Ben doesn't explain everything, and just because the left-wing bloggers were out to get him doesn't make them incorrect. The Daily Kos shows a strange piece of cribbing, as Michelle Malkin wrote, that not only occurred later in Ben's career (2001) but also shows much more intent than just cut-and-paste amnesia:

Ben Domenech wrote:

Translucent and glowing, they ooze up from the ground and float through solid walls, splaying their tentacles and snapping their jaws, dripping a discomfiting acidic ooze. They're known as the Phantoms, otherworldly beings who, for three decades, have been literally sucking the life out of the earthlings of the human. They are swollen, insectoid, the nightmare descendents of Lovecraftian grotesque — if only the filmmakers had created a plot that was as memorable.

Steve Murray, writing for the Cox News Service, wrote:

Translucent and glowing, they ooze up from the ground and float through solid walls, wriggling countless tentacles and snapping their jaws. They're known as the Phantoms, alien thingies that, for three decades, have been sucking the life out of the earthlings of “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.” Swollen nightmares from a petri dish, they're the kind of grotesque whatsits horror writer H.P. Lovecraft would have kept as pets in his basement.

Ben was 19 (two years after his entanglement with the editors at his college newspaper) when these two articles appeared, and unless he wants to argue that Murray plagiarized Ben's work, I'd call that pretty damning. It's worse than dropping an unattributed quote into the review; he reworded Murray's imagery just enough to avoid an accusation that he lifted it word for word.

[infidel29]

...he reworded Murray's imagery just enough to avoid an accusation that he lifted it word for word.

I don't think he even did that much.

[Galveston Grl]

Way to go conservatives! I am so glad you all associated yourselves with the left's murderous looneys in attacking the ONLY conservative at the Washington Post.

[Tribune7]

And you kind of wonder why a major newspaper would be giving a 24-year-old of whatever outlook a column.

[summer]

Re your post #77 -- see my post #71.

[summer]

Thanks for your ping on that other thread.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

No problem.

-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)