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

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

[summer]

Red America, my new blog at washingtonpost.com, has been under attack since its launch. It is a conservative blog on a mainstream media site, so many of the attacks were expected. If one bothers to read it, I believe it stands as a welcome addition to the opinion debate.

The hate mail that I have received since the launch of this blog has been overwhelmingly profane and violent. My family has been threatened; my friends have been deluged; my phone has been prank called. The most recent email that showed up while writing this post talked about how the author would like to hack off my head, and wishes my mother had aborted me.

But in the course of accusing me of racism, homophobia, bigotry, and even (on one extensive Atrios thread) of having a sexual relationship with my mother, the leftists shifted their accusations to ones of plagiarism. You can find the major examples here: I link to this source only because I believe it's the only place that hasn't yet written about how they'd like to rape my sister.
I know that charges of plagiarism are serious. While I am not a journalist, I have, myself, written more than one thing that has been plagiarized in the past. But these charges have also served to create an atmosphere where no matter what is said on my Red America blog, leftists will focus on things with my byline from when I was a teenager.

I can rebut several of the alleged incidents here. The most recent accusation, is that I stole a music review from Crosswalk and passed it off at National Review Online. In fact, I wrote both lists myself; I was one of Crosswalk's music review contributors at the time.

The Left has also accused me of foisting Sen. Frist quotes and some descriptive material from the Washington Post for a New York Press article on the Capitol Shooter. But the quotes I used were either properly credited or came from Sen. Frist’s press conference, which I attended along with many other reporters. So it is no surprise that we had similar quotes or similar descriptions of the same event. I have reams of notes and interviews about the events of that day. I also went over the entire piece step by step with NYPress editors to ensure that it was unquestionably solid before it ran.

Virtually every other alleged instance of plagiarism that I’ve seen comes from a single semester’s worth of pieces that were printed under my name at my college paper, The Flat Hat, when I was 17.

In one instance, I have been accused me of passing off P.J. O'Rourke's writing as my own in a column for the paper. But the truth is that I had met P.J. at a Republican event and asked his permission to do a college-specific version of his classic piece on partying. He granted permission, the piece was cleared with my editors at the paper, and it ran as inspired by O’Rourke’s original.

My critics have also accused me of plagiarism in multiple movie reviews for the college paper. I once caught an editor at the paper inserting a line from The New Yorker (which I read) into my copy and protested. When that editor was promoted, I resigned. Before that, insertions had been routinely made in my copy, which I did not question. I did not even at that time read the publications from which I am now alleged to have lifted material. When these insertions were made, I assumed, like most disgruntled writers would, that they were unnecessary but legitimate editorial additions.

But all these specifics are beside the point. Considering that all of this happened almost eight years ago, and that there are no files or notes that I've kept from that brief stint, it is simply my word against the liberal blogosphere on these examples. It becomes a matter of who you believe.

The truth is, a more responsible teenager would've nipped this sort of thing in the bud. A less sloppy writer would have made sure that material copied from other places never made it into a published piece, and never necessitated apologies or explanations that will do nothing to stop the critics. I was wrong not to do so.

But I do have one other collegiate example that might be to the point. When I was a junior in college, I wrote an article about liberal protests against Henry Kissinger’s visit to our campus. The leftists featured in the piece tried to get me kicked out of school. They mounted a six-month campaign against me. They posted fliers about me on campus. They sent me reams of hate mail. Ultimately, they were unsuccessful – the Honor Council completely cleared my name and the article as the truth. The events of the past 72 hours seem like a rerun of that experience.

The truth is, no conservative could write for the Post without being subject to the gauntlet of the liberal attack machine. There is no question in my mind that any RedState contributor writing for this blog would have found leftists delving through his high school yearbooks and grade school book reports in an effort to discredit and defame him. And if you too were a sloppy teenage writer, your errors or the errors of others would’ve been exploded.

I have a great many friends who are willing to stand and defend me on this. I appreciate their support. I have enormous respect for Jim Brady and the vision he has at WPNI. But while the folks at washingtonpost.com understand my position and are convinced by my arguments on many of these issues, they also feel that the firestorm here will only serve to damage us all, and that there is no way this blog can continue without being permanently tagged to this firestorm. Therefore, I have resigned this position with washingtonpost.com.

This is a shame. As you all know, I am a conservative, but not a partisan – I believe had this blog been allowed to continue, it would have been a significant addition to the Post's site. The Post showed bravery by including a conservative voice, and I hope they continue to seek that balance. While my blog was only alive for a week, it did have one result that was encouraging. If the change of heart described here continues, it will all have been worth it.

To my friends: thank you for your support. To my enemies: I take enormous solace in the fact that you spent this week bashing me, instead of America.

Regards,

Ben

[summer]

:)

[x]

Is there a "statute of limitations" for plagarism? I don't know about Ben's personal case, but it's questionable whether things that people wrote up for school papers before they're fully grown and know the rules should count against them.

College, to Ben's misfortune, most likely does matter. We are adults at 17 or 18, at least as far as something like plagarism is concerned, if not in other regards, but what about things people may have turned in during their junior high years, when it seems like everyone was just trying to put encyclopedia articles into "their own words" for the teacher?

Also, it seems like what investigators come up with is a function of how zealous they are and how much they're willing to dig. Domenech may have gotten into trouble in college, but I'd imagine that if you had every paper "atrios" or "kos" ever wrote, you'd find some questionable pages.

[summer]

What I don't understand is why the college thinks it has any standing NOW to do something about a matter that was an extra-curricular activity YEARS ago.

If they ever thought something was wrong but didn't do anything about it back then -- and it has nothing to do with his classes or grades or someone else -- , then, they should forget about it in terms of the present. Because how do you failrly invesitgate it today?

I think that statute of limitations is certainly long over.

[Right Wing Professor]

He's not a young kid, summer. He's 24, and has worked as a Bush administrator staffer and an editor at a publishing company.

[Right Wing Professor]

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

George Will? Charles Krauthammer?

[summer]

Yes, but the allegations of plagiarism happened when he was 17. Later, his accusers found something from when he was 19. I'm not sure that a college student's writing should be subject to any scrutiny at all beyond the college. If they approve, and apparently they did at the time, then, really, it was irrelevant. But, see my recent posts above for the alleged plagiarism he did at 19 when writing some movie review published in NRO. He claims he wrote his review first. I don't know.

[Right Wing Professor]

Several things he wrote for National Review, after he left college, now seem to be plagiarized. His first 'apology' was a sham. He's now issued a second apology, which in part apologizes for the first apology.

By the time I was 19, I had travelled alone in three continents. Right this minute, we have 19 year olds laying their lives on the line, and subject to the full rigors of military justice, in Iraq. Those are men, not boys. You want to cut this guy slack because, instead, he went to a pricey private college when he was 19?

[summer]

I think x's post, above, explains how I feel, too.

[summer]

And, I haven't seen any "2nd" apology from him. If you can post a link to it, please do.

[Republican Nurse]

Malkin has turned into quite a snark. She'd better make sure that her kitchen is clean before she starts pointing fingers.

[Right Wing Professor]

And, I haven't seen any "2nd" apology from him. If you can post a link to it, please do.

With pleasure

[summer]

Thanks for posting that link. This part was certainly new to me:

I also want to apologize to my previous editors and writers whose work I used inappropriately and without attribution. There is no excuse for this - nor is there an excuse for any obfuscation in my earlier statement.

I hope that nothing I've done as a teenager or in my professional life will reflect badly on the movement and principles I believe in.

I think that is sounding more like a Jayson Blair apology - "Yeah, I did it..." Not good for him. (Good that he apologized though, but, what else could he do if it was true?)

I was willing to hear his side and give him the benefit of the doubt. But, apparently, there was more to this saga, and, he now is acknowledging it.

Well, so it goes...thanks again for the link.

[codercpc]

A little off topic, but it goes to somewhat prove your point at even a much younger age.

When my son was in the 4th grade, he had to write a paper on the Irish Wolfhound. He came out of his bedroom one night, and said "Mom, what exactly is plagiarism?" Trying to explain it on his level, I said, "Well it basically means you cannot copy someone elses work, and claim it as your own" I told him that he must alway give credit, through foot notes etc., to the original source, I must have also told him about the use of quotation marks to further the point, but that part obviously didn't get all the way through. After about 1/2 hour, my FOURTH GRADE son comes out with his masterpiece of a report.......

"English literature abounds with references to the Irish Wolfhound"

I promptly went on to explain to him that what he just produced was PLAGERISM!!!

He thought that if he used the quotation marks, then he could copy it word for word. We still laugh at my obviously poor explanation. But yet back to the matter at hand, he knew from me, and his teachers, in fourth grade, that plagiarism was wrong.

[summer]

Well, remember, originally, in his initial apology, he seemed to be claiming there was no plagiarism.

[summer]

Also -- the question now returns and looks large: What was this blogger thinking when he accepted the job? He claimed to Human Events the Washington Post people were "fools" for not realizing the left would come after him with "knives" -- didn't he think they would, too? And, if he actually knew he had plagiarized in the past, how long did he think it would take them to find out? I'm not able to follow his thinking here...

[Right Wing Professor]

You're welcome.

Meanwhile I got in trouble on another site for merely mentioning that MLK's plagiarism was far worse. Sigh!

[Freee-dame]

bump

[codercpc]

Agreed, I think the more this fleshes out, the more damning it looks. Since I have never read (knowingly) his work before, this story doesn't really matter to me, and I personally like that conservatives hold each other to such high standards.

There are a few posters on this board that I almost always agree with, and look forward to reading what they write, and you Summer are among them. I have been here a long time but don't post too often, it seems that someone has always made my point so much better than I can, so why bother. In this case, I was somewhat surprised to see both sides of the issue, and just wanted to add my own antidote on how even the youngest child knows what plagiarism is.

[summer]

Well, codercpc, I am very humbled by your compliment and trust in me. Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it. :)

I try to be open-minded. And, fair. I was willing to be fair here, too. But, I agree with you, the more this matter goes on, the worse it looks for him.

However, as a teacher, I hope he continues to write, raise his own standards, and who knows what will happen in the future. I am certain he learned a valuable lesson this year! It need not be the end of his writing and learning... :)

[summer]

someone has always made my point so much better than I can, so why bother.

BTW, I don't agree with you on that point, above, because I really enjoyed reading your post #93. Consequently, I hope you will post more often. As you're a mom involved with your child's education, you probably have a lot to teach us. :)