Ben Domenech

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Ben Domenech (born December 31, 1981, Jackson, Mississippi)[1] is a conservative writer and blogger who co-founded the RedState group blog. In March 2006, he was hired to write a conservative blog for washingtonpost.com but resigned after three days amid allegations of plagiarism during his college years to which he later confessed.[2] After apologizing and ceasing online activity for some time, Domenech returned to continue editing and writing for Redstate, Human Events, and other publications.

Contents

[edit] Personal

Domenech is the son of Douglas Domenech, the White House Liaison for the Department of the Interior[3], is a cousin of Puerto Rican Democrat Francisco Domenech, and is descended from a prominent Puerto Rican politician, Manuel V. Domenech, former legislator, Mayor of Ponce, Commissioner of the Interior, Treasurer, and acting Governor of Puerto Rico. He was home schooled by his mother using the Calvert School curriculum (and by correspondence for his last three years of high school)[4].

He attended the College of William and Mary between 1999 and 2002. After receiving a job offer from the US Department of Health and Human Services, he left William and Mary before his senior year.[5]

[edit] Career

His career in punditry began as a teenager when he began writing a column, "Any Given Sunday," for National Review Online, in addition to his personal blog [4]. The column recapped political talk shows on television. "If there was a Top 10 list of young Loudoun County people to watch, he'd be on it," a Washington Post reporter wrote in a Loudoun County regional section of the paper. "Domenech is a sharp writer with an obvious command of his national politics beat — especially considering that this is the first year he is eligible to vote."[6]

Domenech said in his Washingtonpost.com bio that he was the youngest political appointee of the George W. Bush administration.[7] He worked as a speechwriter for Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. He has also worked as contributing editor for National Review Online; two years as the chief speechwriter for Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX); and an editor at Regnery Publishing, where he worked on Michelle Malkin's book Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, and Hugh Hewitt's book Painting the Map Red.[8] He was also apparently editor for Ramesh Ponnuru's 2006 book, The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life.[9]

The Washington Post had been criticized for hiring him.[10] One line of criticism held that the Post should not have hired a non-journalist conservative partisan blogger—or at least, not without hiring a non-journalist liberal partisan blogger. Another line focused on Domenech's previous writings, including a February 7, 2006 condemnation of deceased civil rights activist Coretta Scott King as a "Communist."[11]) Domenech also was criticized for a post [12] quoting from a First Things article by Richard John Neuhaus [13] about Freakonomics and abortion. In his washingtonpost.com blog, Domenech apologized for calling King a Communist, describing his lapse as "hyperbole" and defended the item relating to Neuhaus.[14] RedState co-founder Joshua Treviño defended the above statements (the first as hyperbole) on his blog.[15]

[edit] Plagiarism

Domenech, who wrote for RedState under the pseudonym "Augustine,"[16] was hired by the Washington Post's online arm to write a blog providing "a daily mix of commentary, analysis and cultural criticism."[17] The blog, "Red America", launched on March 21, 2006, but was closed three days later, after other bloggers posted evidence that Domenech had plagiarized work from writers at The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, National Review Online, Cox News Service , and Salon, as well as that of humorist P. J. O'Rourke and several amateur film critics.

Domenech was first accused of appropriating a chapter from O'Rourke's 1990 book "Modern Manners" for an editorial in The Flat Hat, a weekly student newspaper at William and Mary.[18] O'Rourke denied Domenech's claim that the humorist had granted permission to use his words, adding that he couldn't recall ever meeting the college student. [19] Blogs Eschaton and Daily Kos soon posted links to movie reviews of Bringing Out the Dead, The Bachelor, and The World Is Not Enough written by Domenech for the same student paper. The reviews appear to be taken nearly verbatim from reviews published by Salon.com and an amateur Usenet reviewer named Steve Rhodes.

The Flat Hat investigated and eventually concluded that the paper had published 35 articles by Domenech, including 10 with suspicious similarities to works by other authors, including ones by National Review editor Jonah Goldberg. [20] [21] [22] Commenters at Daily Kos also uncovered two examples of plagiarism in reviews written by Domenech for National Review Online in 2000 and 2001. The first finding, a review of the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, contained a lengthy passage nearly identical to one by Steve Murray of the Cox News Service [23]. The second, a review of a Wallflowers' album, borrowed passages from one published in Rolling Stone by Tom Moon earlier the same month[24].

Domenech's plagiarism initially appeared to have extended to the Post itself. DailyKos posters found passages in an article that mirrored ones in a 1999 story by Post staff writers Edward Walsh and Roberto Suro about the Waco Siege of David Koresh's Branch Davidian church[25] and a 1998 story by Post staff writers Michael Powell and Saundra Torry reporting on the Russell Eugene Weston Jr. shooting in the U.S. Capitol[26].

However, the editors of The Flat Hat later disputed the accusation regarding the Waco article, writing in an online editors note[27]:

We believe this was a simple typographical error which could have been introduced at any point in the production process. As such, we do not believe the fault is with Ben Domenech or Marianna Toma, the writers of this piece. In this instance, any confusion about the sources of these articles was almost certainly not due to any misconduct or negligence by the writers.

On March 24 2006, the editors of National Review confirmed on its blog The Corner [28] that Domenech appeared to have plagiarized at least one article he'd written for that publication:

As the previous links on the matter mention, at least one of the pieces Ben Domenech is accused of having plagiarized was a movie review for National Review Online. A side-by-side comparison to another review of the same film speaks for itself. There is no excuse for plagiarism and we apologize to our readers and to Steve Murray of the Cox News Service from whose piece the language was lifted. With some evidence of possible problems with other pieces, we're also looking into other articles he wrote for NRO.

Still later, National Review announced that they had confirmed three other instances of apparent plagiarism. Side-by-side comparisons published on the site indicated that Domenech had also lifted phrases from Rolling Stone, the Dallas Morning News, and other sources.[29]

[edit] Resignation

On March 24 2006, RedState contributor Erick (Erickson) called the plagiarism allegations "lies" and said that "permissions obtained" were not reflected in the online record.[30] That same day, Malkin called the evidence for plagiarism "damning" and urged him to resign.[31]. Other conservative bloggers followed suit.

At 1:17 p.m. ET on March 24 2006, Washington Post online editor Jim Brady announced Domenech's resignation,[32] explaining:

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.

Domenech initially denied the charges, blaming editors for similarities to other articles. On March 24 2006, after resigning but before admitting his guilt, he claimed that "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." [33] However, examples of plagiarism have been found which span the years 1999-2001.[citation needed]

[edit] Leave of absence and return

Domenech took a leave of absence from RedState, but remained on the organization's board.[34] In 2007 he began regularly publishing posts at RedState again [5] and started a new personal blog [6]. His stories continue to be linked by prominent bloggers [7] [8] [9] [10], and has written columns for other publications [11].

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Domenech's Bio. "I was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, before moving to Virginia."
  2. ^ Washington Post online Post.com Blogger Quits Amid Furor, Howard Kurtz. March 25, 2006. According to Kurtz, Jim Brady "said he would have dismissed Domenech if the former Bush administration aide and Republican Senate staffer had not offered to quit first."
  3. ^ "Domenech Named To White House Post"
  4. ^ The Flat Hat: Home sweet school A Domenech piece about his home schooling experience. Domenech's father was also active in the home schooling movement Interview with Doug Domenech: Proclaim Liberty
  5. ^ The Flat Hat Online, Former Flat Hat editor refutes Domenech's rebuttal, Joshua Pinkerton. Article cites Associate Vice President for Public Affairs Bill Walker as saying Domenech left the college without graduating
  6. ^ [1]"An Early Eye for Political Punditry: Teenager's Pointed Views Play in Conservative Circles" feature article (no byline shown on Web page), The Washington Post, Loudoun County Extra (local supplement section), May 7, 2000, first three paragraphs appear on "Free article preview" page at Washington Post Web site, accessed August 30, 2007
  7. ^ Red America blog bio on Domenech The bio states "After 9/11, he abandoned the journalism field for a taxpayer-funded life and was sworn in as the youngest political appointee of President George W. Bush."
  8. ^ online announcement
  9. ^ LA Times on Domenech affair
  10. ^ MediaMatters criticizes hiring
  11. ^ Post on RedState.org
  12. ^ Post on RedState.org
  13. ^ First Things article
  14. ^ [2]Domenech, Ben, "Two quick notes", blog item, Washington Post Web site, March 23, 2007
  15. ^ The man stands alone Joshua Treviño, 31 March 2006
  16. ^ RedState story by "Erick" The fact that "Augustine" was a pseudonym used Domenech had not been well known. See this post at Daily Kos
  17. ^ Blog on Washington Post
  18. ^ Original blog entry
  19. ^ New York Times online, Washington Post Blogger Quits After Plagiarism Accusations, Julie Bosman, March 25, 2006. The Times article quotes O'Rourke as saying, "I wouldn't want to swear in a court of law that I never met the guy," adding "but I didn't give him permission to use my words under his byline, no."
  20. ^ FlatHat investigates charges
  21. ^ Domenech appears to have copied three new pieces
  22. ^ Domenech's college paper reveals more plagiarism
  23. ^ DailyKos post identifying plagiarism published in National Review Online
  24. ^ DailyKos post identifying further plagiarism published in National Review Online
  25. ^ Another DailyKos post
  26. ^ More plagiarism discovered at DailyKos
  27. ^ Editors note clears Domenech for Waco article
  28. ^ National Review confirms plagiarism
  29. ^ NRO Corner link
  30. ^ RedState attempts to defend Domenech
  31. ^ Michelle Malkin gives up supporting Domenech
  32. ^ Washington Post announces Domenech's resignation
  33. ^ Domenech's statement on Redstate
  34. ^ Domenech's apology. See also [3].

[edit] See also

[edit] External links