The Fall of “Red America”
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Washington Post’s Jim Brady
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.
This prompts larger questions about conservative “journalism”.
This is a guy who
- Wrote for National Review
- Edited books for Regnery (Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin)
- Was a speechwriter for a U.S. Senator
And consistently got kicked up the conservative food chain. Yet the minute he got work in the supposedly liberal mainstream media, that was the first time anyone scrutinized his past work (and the Post was asleep at the wheel, too) and it turns out he was a serial plagiarist.
I know this is another chapter in the fine history of conservative “scholarship”, but come on. When are you guys going to get real?
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
At least we don’t have to exaggerate what it was that we exactly won, unlike the wingers and the Rathergate issue. It’s indisputable that BTB has comitted crimes against journalism, but contrary to the wingers’ claims there has never been a definative finding that the Rathergate docs were forgeries. Didn’t stop you guys from claiming the investigation said exactly that (which it didn’t) and endlessly crowing about it.
Yay! You won one! Once again, the Republic is safe…
Every little victory is another step to the restoration of Truth, Justice and the American Way, Frank.
The poor 24 year-old wunderkind has succumbed to the Karmic residue
of Neocon Bad Boy tactics.
But the question remains; Where was Wapo’s due diligence?
What kind of Bona Fides remains intact at the shell that once was
a paragon of credibility?
” Where was Wapo s due diligence?”
I think Atrios just said it best: Editors need to stop worrying about “bias” and get back to worrying about doing good reporting.
A conservative voice silenced.
Look, it’s in my best interests to have a plagiarist representing the right in a major American newspaper…
Washington Post Steps In It ~ Domenech Resigns
A few days ago I wrote, “This is probably the dumbest thing the Washington Post Online could have done from a long-term business perspective. First the whole Red State/Blue State meme is on the way out. Second, giving voice to one of the founders of r…
dugger, you moron. This isnt’ about left or right. it’s about a PLAGIARIST getting a top job at a national paper, and the destruction of media credibility. you know what? If they’d propped up a lefty blooger and he or she had been shown to be a plagiarist, I WOULD HAVE FELT THE SAME WAY.
Domenech is just another journalistic shame. I wish you could get it, and not just politicize every. single. freaking. thing. Moron.
Dugger,
Damn straight we’re happy. We’re happy because Domenech should never have been hired in the first place. He was clearly a partisan shill with absolutely no journalism experience who was hired because of his (and his father’s) connections as a sop to the right-wing crybabies who think everyone to the right of Jesse Helms is “the enemy.”
Don’t blame us if his lack of experience and pathological need to cut and paste others’ work without providing attribution got him killed. (Personally, I think the Post let him off easy by giving him the opportunity to resign.) A little advice: The next time you people send out an emissary to take over the MSM, try spending a little more time on Google and Lexis/Nexis and less time calling your critics “lefty haters.”
So who should replace him? I really don’t care, as long as he’s a real, honest to god journalist and not a partisan hatchet man or a serial plagiarist.
Happy now?. A conservative voice silenced. Lets see. WaPo had decided they needed a conservative voice to provide a fig leaf of balance for lefty haters like Dana Milbank. So now who do you support, who will Media matters with the backing of the Soros’ billions, support as a conservative voice, that I as a conservative, want to hear at WaPo? Or like you are re Fox News, are you against any manifestation of the non-left having a voice – as you have wrought at the universities.
Undoubtedly a victory for the left. Can’t argue that. You have silenced a portion of the other side.
Tell me about frappin’ media bias, again.
Dugger “A top producer at ABC NEWS declared “Bush makes me sick” in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT. “
Farris,
Never said it was just as big as Rather, only that we don’t need to lie about what actually was accomplished. We know this guy is a nothing, that’s why it was such a shame he was thrown into such a high profile spot in the first place. We’re happy to rest on the facts.
And thanks for confirming my post here (http://www.oliverwillis.com/2006/03/24/the-redstate-ing-of-journalism/) where I predicted that the next meme from the right would be to downplay this guy’s importance when the right was shouting from the hills about how important his hiring was just a day before.
I love how you don’t even dispute the charge, you just mock us for exposing it. As garth said, this is about a plagerist working for the paper. Hell, I was po’ed when the 60 minutes shit hit the fan and when Dateline blew up a “defective” truck. The point should be left or right, don’t lie about the damn news. Ok? Simple enough for you?
IMO, I think the Conservative Right already has more than it’s fair share of media outlets, from Fox news et al, to Scarborough, Rush and his dubiously named EIB network, Anne “the man” Coulter, etc.
What do we get to counter? Air America, The Daily Show and Keith Olberman.
Is this what you mean by balanced?
Dugger, let them have their fun. In their eyes, taking down Domenech and Jeff Gannon are just as “big” as taking down Dan Rather and Eason Jordan.
I look forward to updates about on the campaigns against Britt Hume and Chris Matthews.
Whoops. Make that “everyone to the LEFT of Jesse Helms.”
Dugger,
It’s not about silencing anyone, which your rightwing media figures make a career out of, it’s about outing an ignorant hack. Or would you find it appropriate criticism of the right’s attacks on Ward Churchill to say, “congrats, you silenced a voice on the left”? You’d save yourself having to respond to this same criticism every single damn time if you just thought about it yourself before you said something dumb.
And be accurate, Soros doesn’t fund MM directly: http://mediamatters.org/items/200412010006
Too bad you can’t find basic information on your own. They are funded partially by a couple groups which receive some money from soros, but not directly. And Brock once said he’d be delighted to get money from Soros, so who cares? Soros doesn’t have the racist and uncompassionate backgrounds of Coors and Schaife.
God you people are just ridiculous!
Remeber what Frederick the Great said: “L’audace, L’audace, Toujour L’audace!”
(Audacity, audacity, always audacity!)
Happy now?.
Sorry Dugger.
I won’t be happy until all right wing purveyors of truth are purged from
the Liberal Biased Media so that no balance in reporting the news can
ever rear it’s ugly head. The Lefties must control all information with
any means available.
Rove, you sonofabitch, we read your book!!!!!
OK OYE,
“He was clearly a partisan shill ”
He was hired in recogniton of his partisanship. And what was Milbank doing in his orange hunter’s outfit on the left wing Olbermann show – if not being clearly parisan?
And if a man/teenager does something wrong in his youth, is he still that today? Is that what we are saying, boobies? How about an ex Klansman for starters? How about all the left wingers with flings with radical left wing orgainizations in their youth? Is that the standard?
OW, You called for him, no ‘screamed’ for him to be fired. Do you now seriously pretend the reason you did that was your altruistic concern for the generic problem of plagiarization by teenagers.
garth,
It is exactly and only about partisan politics. Nothing else. What was what Milbank did on Olbermann?
mjb, Please. The left screamed for him to be fired. Re that position he was hired for, he has been silenced. And I have no doubt the radical left would silence just about every dissenting voice in America from the right if they could – after all ‘they really know whats best for the people and they are smarter than idiot Red Staters’. Its what you’ve done at universities where you have total control.
Semant,
You joke because I expect you see no problem. If I were you I would be uneasy about political pressure groups silencing dissent. Your answer is that its OK becasue there is still some dissent out there.
Look at the universities. Speech codes. Can’t say anything that makes a left wing constituency feel ‘uncomfortable’. Look at the campaign against Fox News. Remember OW and Media Matters trying to get Brit Hume fired. Yeah, hilarious.
Read the history of the Boston Herald non-TV station.
Still haven’t heard a name from progressives. Who from the real right, not your pretend right, would you not call to be fired/silenced? Or is it your intent that WaPo kill the balance idea altogtether.
Dugger, This is why I can never be a leftist
Dugger, another great substanceless response without addressing anything I said. You really just throw as much shit against a wall to see if something sticks, don’t you. Of course the left screamed for him to be fired, that was the point of the whole damn controversy. Just as the right took (too much) credit for Rathergate, we take credit for this. That’s not what I was denying you reading comprehension impaired poster, you.
It was never about silencing right-wing opinion.
Listening to Air America all day, and reading liberal blogs all day, the one thing I heard from everyone was how there are plenty of credible conservative journalists out there who could have done this, why this tool?
“A conservative voice silenced.”
Oh yes, we’ll never hear from Ben again. Delicate and intense like a whispy candle flame, Ben’s voice has been snuffed out. Alas, poor Box Turtle Ben, we hardly knew ye.
I’ll see your producer and raise you Carl Cameron.
I have no problem with the WA Post hiring a Conservative to Blog for them. But it should be an actual journalist with some experience.
I know that pointing this out to the trolls on this site is a waste of time, but here goes. Fromkin and Milbank may have liberal views, but they are still professional journalists not part of the democratic establishment; not on the DNC payroll, etc. The counter part to them would be a journalist with Conservative views who isn’t on the RNC payroll, etc. Surely there must be some out there. Hiring this connected kid with no credetionals and no experience should be viewed as a slap in the face to all the conservative real journalists out there that should have been considered for the job.
“Who will Media matters with the backing of the Soros billions, support as a conservative voice, that I as a conservative, want to hear at WaPo?”
Why exaclty, is the WaPo or any newspaper obligated to present a “conservative voice” in its editorial sections? Where’s the liberal host to balance O’Reilly on Fox (and fer chrissakes don’t you dare say Alan Colmes)? Dugger, would you like to go back to the days of the Fairness Doctrine? I’m all for it. It’s conservatives, under Reagan, who killed it.
semantic
That should read “right wing purveyors of truthiness”
and
Rove, you magnificent bastard…
frame1
A conservative voice silenced.
To quote from another thread..”Say it soft and it’s almost like praying”
if not being clearly parisan?
I thought he looked German, myself.
And what was Milbank doing in his orange hunter s outfit
Being funny. Look it up. By your measure Jay Leno was being right wing when he did Clinton jokes. I thought they were funny and fair game.
“what was Milbank doing in his orange hunter s outfit on the left wing Olbermann show”
I believe the word you were looking for was comedy.
“You joke because I expect you see no problem”
Dugger;
Instapundit blogs at MSNBC and has a regular column there.
Do you hear anyone ranting on about him?
Many feel he is a stealth Neocon, in spite of his apparent pro-choice
and pro-gay positions, yet there is no Hue and Cry. Why?
Is it because he has some gravitas and credibility?
The Wapo move to pander to the right wing is not about balancing the
scales. If it were some measure of vetting would have taken place
before the choice was made. No, the knee jerk right wing pushed this
issue so hard that Wapo screwed up. Talk about pressure groups.
There is much more fear of conservative pressure groups than there is
leftist. Those scales need to be balanced and that is part of what
occured here.
“frameone: the Fairness Doctrine did not apply to print media.”
Check. I meant to raise it in connection to my question about Fox having a liberal commentator to balance O’Reilly. Dugger seems to think he should be able to demand that the WaPo have a conservative columnist. Well, I want to see a liberal opinion show on Fox. Any difference?
In homage to that beloved Conservative cinematic (koff) masterpiece “Red Dawn,” I believe we should refer to the shitcanning of Ben Domenech (aka “Box Turtle Ben,” aka “The Vermin Ben,” aka “The RedState Racist,” aka “Awfulsteen,” aka “the Jason Blair of conservative writing”) as Red Sunset.”
frameone: the Fairness Doctrine did not apply to print media.
Semanticleo: arguing with Dugger is pointless. He either knows damn well nobody has trod upon Benny-poo’s freedom of speech and is trying to get our goat, or he really is too dumb to understand this. I suspect the former. My father is a neocon and loves doing this crap to get a rise out of folks.
Man, that was great soap opera for a few days. Of course, the guy now blames the ‘moonbat hordes’ when it was his own ethical lapses that led to his resignation. Once again the right blames the messengers — this time it was for pointing out how well the guy cuts and pastes.
“Re that position he was hired for, he has been silenced.”
Let’s see the evidence that Dom was brainwashed by a Stalinist cabal Manchurin Candidate-style and forced to plagarize article after article and then, after he was found out, forced to deny it with ludicrous lies. Then I’ll agree that he was “silenced.”
The WaPo would have kept Dom no matter how much of a stink the lefty bloggers raised because that’s exactly what they hired him to do: Create a controversy that would prove to the right that the WaPo was not, itself, liberal. That became untenable when it was revealed that their guy was a thief. Plain and simple, that’s what a plagarist is. And he did it repeatedly.
Defending him on free speech grounds is so monumentally ironic it would be disgusting if it weren’t so hilarious. A voice was silenced? Who’s voice? He stole the voice of other writers and passed it off as his own. It’s the cardinal sin of journalism and writing in general.
Face it Dugger, this idiot silenced himself the first time he passed off someone else’s wirting as his own. And the second time, the third time and every time after that.
Duros;
I felt ‘magnificent’ was too complimentary, unless you mean as;
“a dead mackeral shines at midnight”
Semant
i thought you were quoting Patton.
I.e. “Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!”
Yeah, yeah. But I hate it when the lynch mob wins.
All of you holier than thou leftists yammering that the only reason you tok partin in a big money effort to get him fired was that he was not a real journalist, please explain the failed Brit Hume lynch mob? And tell me again about freedom of speech on campuses – run by leftists.
Dugger
“… he was not a real journalist …”
No he wasn’t. He was a plagarist. Is Brit Hume? And as someone whose written for both a campus newspaper and graded undergraduate papers, let me tell you all about campus ethics guidelings. Seriously, do you want to talk holier than thou? I’ve been writing films reviews large and small for nigh on a decade. In the hundreds and hundreds of reviews and essays I’ve written I have never once plagarized the work of others, not in all the long dark nights when the words weren’t coming up against a hard deadline in the morning. Ya, writing film reviews is easy unless your heroes are James Agee, Manny Farber and Pauline Kael, film critics who were also great writers period. The lynch mob only won, Dugger, because Ben gave them the rope.