Earlier today, I wrote this:
On the charges of plagiarism, I’ll accept Ben’s explanationâ€â€whatever it isâ€â€because I also found him to be quite a forthright gentleman, which means that I expect he will admit to any wrongdoing.
And now he has, as I’d hoped he would, once he had time to consider his actions. Here is the text of his post, courtesy Red State:
“Contrition”
I want to apologize to National Review Online, my friends and colleagues here at RedState, and to any others that have been affected over the past few days. 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’m deeply grateful for the love and encouragment of all those around me. And although I may not deserve such support, it makes it that much more humbling at a time like this. I’m a young man, and I hope that in time that I can earn a measure of the respect that you have given me.
Regards,
Ben
[My emphases]
Ben has stepped up and taken responsibility. It took some time, sure—but all of this happened so fast (and I happen to know of some extenuating circumstances) that his initial reaction was (naturally) defensive and, I imagine, ashamed.
Still, as I noted earlier, he is a young man with much to commend hm. He is talented, dedicated, and driven—and while there can be no doubt that he made mistakes in judgment that are to be condemned in no uncertain terms, he showed me a lot by offering such a public mea culpa. And now that he has admitted his errors and apologized (who knows, maybe Dan Rather will follow suit!), I am prepared to accept those apologies as both sincere and final. He can begin the long road back to regaining his honor.
Which leaves us here: those on the left who have been braying all day over Ben’s downfall have two choices, as I see it: they can continue to gloat and carry around his scalp as a trophy to their own viciousness (they went after him for a host of other things, from his schooling to his family to his supposed “racism” before they got around to the plagiarism charge)—showing themselves to be the very fetishists of schadenfreude I accused them of being; or they can now explain to us why they don’t hold their own to the same ethical standards. Ben has owned up to his mistakes. He has, as I anticipated he would, taken that most difficult first step to rehabilitating his credibility. Now it’s time for other folks to do the same: Molly Ivins; Larry Tribe; Stephen Ambrose Michael Bellesiles1; Dan Rather; Jason Leopold; Joe Biden; Micah Wright; Ward Churchill; Eason Jordan; CNN’s agreement with Saddam’s Iraq; Joe Wilson; Steve Erlanger—we’re looking at you.
Surely, our principled guardians of publishing ethics could use their newfound momentum to prompt similarly intensive investigations into the ethical lapses of those mentioned above, yes? Or is it only conservatives who are to be publicly pilloried by the reality based community.
You know—because of the nuance.
****
related: Here’s RedState’s official response, from Mike Krempasky.
update: Don Surber, always one to try to prove he is no rightwing ideologue, blasts Domenech with both barrels and contends that “righties” need to apologize to the Washington Post, presumably because all “righties” (he and other independent thinkers being the execptions) are interchangeable. Surber, in his roundup, calls my post ”defensive.” Which I admit I find baffling.
Once again: I have condemned the plagiarism in no uncertain terms. Beyond that, though, I have accepted Ben’s apology for it. This does not amount to condoning the acts or forgiving them. What it amounts to is forgiving the human who made the mistakes and letting him know that his decision to come clean was the right one. As I said, it’s the first step on the ong road back to regaining his honor.
Other than that, what’s to say? He has resigned. His personal and professional life are in disarray. He has been called vile names by vile people for days straight. He is taking his licks.
Now, Don is free to let Ben twist in the wind. But I’d hardly say that because I won’t—that I feel like the pile-on has gone on long enough—my post is defensive. Supportive and forgiving of the person, sure. Critical of the pre-plagiarism vitriol against Ben, absolutely. Critical of the continuing post-apology piling on, I plead guilty.
But defensive? No.
A portion of my post asks why those who have spent so much time and energy going after Ben (under the auspices of protecting journalistic integrity) don’t expend similar energy on those dubious actions of their ideological brethren. But this is a separate question entirely (though clearly it is a related or occasional one). And really, how many times must one say plagiarism is bad before one is allowed to ask related questions? Should I wait until after the public stoning?
For all Don’s posturing, here is what it comes down to. He writes:
Home-schooled, eh?
Hiring Ben Domenech was a joke. The Post needs to go inhouse this time. I suggested Frank Ahrens. I am sure the Post has others. No right-wing bloggers.
…then tries to walk back what is quite clearly an elitist, “established-media only need apply” snipe with this addendum:
I want to make this clear. You do not have to be a journalist to be a blogger. Dr. Charles Krauthammer earned a Pulitzer and he is medically trained. My problem with Domenech is he brings to the table no experience at anything. He is just rude.
Sure, Ben was a Congressional speechwriter, a former Capitol Hill journalist, and is a professional editor (for folks like Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt), but in Don’s world, these things don’t count as “experience” enough to write an opinion blog at the WaPo.
Now, writing editorials and a weekly column for the Charleston Daily Mail, that’s something else entirely…
****
Jeralyn Merritt shows class.
1: Correction: I included Steven Ambrose on the list when I was thinking of Michael Bellesiles. Ambrose plagiarized, but it was Bellesiles and his book on Colonial gun ownership that I was thinking of when I put the list together. Thanks to emailer Wayne Jones, a former student of Ambrose’s, for noting the error.
He plagiarized, and then he lied about it earlier today.
This apology would be a lot more convincing if he had sacked up and used the words “plagiarize” and “lie” instead of all the dancing around with phrases like “without attribution” and “obfuscation”.
Aplomb seemed to absorb the full meaning of your post….onward hamsher
… not to mention sackcloth and ashes, self-flagellation, and ritual self-disembowling.
Or he could start writing for Media Matters about how awful Bush is — then, of course, all would be forgiven.
Good thing he only plagiarized. If he’d, you know, served as a mouthpiece for a totalitarian government, he might have been relegated to Yale.
It’s so refreshing to see an apology of a type other than the usual “I’m sorry I got caught” variety. There is hope for the young man.
Now if perhaps we’d hear a similarly sincere apology from Mary Mapes for Memogate, from CNN for lying daily from Baghdad, or from O-Dub for the decimation of the wild Twinkie population… the list of un-tendered apologies goes on and on.
Unless, of course, it’s the apologizing to the world for America’s existence. That, we’ve had enough of already, thankyouverymuch.
Also considering Aplomb’s grip… I was referred to as advancing a “strawman” by Slimm, for addressing the lefts thirst for more when cons collectively condemned plagiarism and called for a resignation.
He has, as I anticipated he would, taken that most difficult first step to rehabilitating his credibility. Now it’s time for other folks to do the same: Molly Ivins; Larry Tribe; Stephen Ambrose; Dan Rather; Jason Leopold; Joe Biden; Micah Wright; Ward Churchill; Eason Jordan; CNN’s agreement with Saddam’s Iraq; Joe Wilson; Steve Erlangerâ€â€we’re looking at you.
Not a chance, plagiarism was never the hook, it’s all burning.
C’mon, be like Vic Mackey and his Strike Team on The Shield. He’s family. Even if he has to go to jail, you keep him out of the One-Niners’ turf, or else you get him over the border and send him beer money.
That, or drop a grenade in his car. Shane, Shane, what have you done?
If the stupid don’t understand this, let me be clear: there will be pressure on Mr. Domenech to do exactly that, to ‘defect,’ to ‘repent and be saved,’ and ‘there’s no fanatic like a converted fanatic.’
IOW, isolating and shunning him, rather than extending some Slack (Bob-style, if ya know what I mean), is a good way to drive a miserable YOUNG MAN, let’s say it again, how old is he? College age? Impressionable enough to indulge in reaction formations? Well, throw the first stone if you dare, but for people who have watched as much Harvey Keitel as Jeff and I, the redemptive nature of suffering implies forgiveness by its very nature.
Of course I haven’t looked; was this really bad? Ooh, is he the worst plagiarist that ever was? Is he being expelled from his school?
Gee, I guess he can only hope to become Senator.
TW: Wasn’t that the way Biden, Ted & Co did it?
This commenter’s words at Sadly, No pretty much defines the left’s position on this:
I tried to read through more of the comments, but WTF is the point?
Scalps are meant for collecting. When the left takes one, they hang it on their belt, because they are so right to do so, doncha know?
Possibly related, a Democrat engaging in dirty tricks pleads guilty.
Whats that whole yarn?
TW: reverse; as in, the left don’t have to reverse the yarn and suck a thousand cocks. You had it at the first one. You had it at the first one.
Beth
So who was it that said WAPO’s</i>sop to the right<i> anyways?
But TM of course had a clue, the 16 odd outta 50,000 boxes is a bit much to swallow, Ben on the otherhand isn’t.
a Democrat engaging in dirty tricks pleads guilty.
They won’t care until the civil trial.
I was wondering when P.J. O’Rourke would speak up in Ben’s defense. Alas, the New York Times has dashed that faint hope…
Remember, keeds, it’s not the initial misdemeanor that bites you, it’s the cover-up!
cordially,
Beth
Of course the Left Cultists are reveling.
They aren’t jihadist apologists for nothing.
Remember, keeds, it’s not the initial misdemeanor that bites you, it’s the cover-up!
Saddams files await you.
One wonders how even tempered you were when Jayson Blair apologized.
GoB
Jayson Blair apologized?
I have a search button. Look up what I wrote about Jayson Blair. I’m curious to see how I did.
Saddams files await you.
Ah, those would be the files thoughtfully provided by Chalabi’s “Iraqi National Congress.”
Note that the branch you’re strolling along starts to taper in that direction.
ta,
Conservative books? Matches please. Consrvative voice? If you’ve ever looked crossed eyed at anyone in your life YOUR ASS IS MINE.
Hey, you think Dan Rather or Mary Mapes will apologize anytime soon?
Man, the pressure the left must be applying to those two has gotta be reaching critical mass about now.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Ah, those would be the files thoughtfully provided by Chalabi’s “Iraqi National Congress.â€Â
Note that the branch you’re strolling along starts to taper in that direction.
ta,
GoalPost 49,991 out of 50,000.
Hey, you think Dan Rather or Mary Mapes will apologize anytime soon?
Nope, Mary and her crazy perm self are “still on the story”, Incidentally, so is Jason Leopold…only he actually gets a paycheck from “TRUTHout” among others.
Little known fact: the 48,000 boxes of documents they have? All in Ahmad Chalabi’s handwriting.
Hey, you think Dan Rather or Mary Mapes will apologize anytime soon?
Probably about the same time the NYTimes returns the Pulitzer it “won” for Walter Duranty’s glowing articles about Stalin.
The Right has always policed it’s ranks, from extremes like President Nixon, to molehills like Ben D. The Left has always closed its ranks, from extremes like Pres. Clinton to molehills like Jayson B.
So I’m just surfing around looking at all the stuff flying around the internets about this. Just one question for the leftwats:
Why aren’t you calling for Sherrod Brown’s head?
TW: Anything?
Ah, those would be the files thoughtfully provided by Chalabi’s “Iraqi National Congress.â€Â
Little known fact: the 48,000 boxes of documents they have? All in Ahmad Chalabi’s handwriting.
GoalPost 49,990 out of 50,000.
Why aren’t you calling for Sherrod Brown’s head?
Dem elected are not subject to fines and imprisonment.
IMPEACH HIM!!!
yeah, Darleen. he apologized.
Heard of google? try “jayson blair apologizes”
Christ, you just don’t have any sense of a balanced point of view, huh.
Jeff Goldstein: how does Blair compare to Domenech in your mind right now?
Is one better than the other? Worse?
Mr. Biscuit,
How do you get your biscuits so fluffy?
And for more fun with Google try ”edward kennedy apologizes to family of mary jo kopechne”
This is the “Best Apology” thread, right?
Jeff sez:
Oh come now, Jeff. First, that would take effort. Second, it might uncover some pesky truth. Third, it’s not nearly as satisfying as flying by and dropping “You partisan hack!” bombs.
This should be fun for God of Biscuits. After all, there’s a conservtive bleeding. And here you are asking people to pay attention to facts when all they really want to do is play in the blood and get some on you.
You’re a harsh taskmaster, Goldstein.
GoB,
Blair is worse by an order of magnitude, having told lies for a living to millions of people who expected him to report news.
Domenech is 300% wrong, but only 10% as slimy. Both violated trust, but Domenech wasn’t making shit up.
Somehow (and I can’t put my finger on just <style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_4210″>admitted plagarist</A> like Joe Biden.
But maybe that’s just me. Because, really, the so-called “liberal media” is just a figment of our collective paranoid imaginations.
If this guy’s friends had been really looking out for him they’d have stopped him from digging a bigger hole with his obviously dishonest explanations, told him to take a day to digest it all, and then come clean.
But now that he has come clean, I do agree his apology should be accepted and he should be left alone. He’s not a murderer.
So, Ben…keep your chin up.
Oh, also…stop calling Mrs. King a commie. I voted GOP last election, but I find that kind of talk offensive. When you smugly put hate out there, well…karma’s a bitch. That goes for the Ann Coulter and Michael Moore types on both sides. Don’t ya see you’re mirror images of each other?????
Okay, so something screwed up my last comment. What I was trying to say is that the MSM is more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to some plagarists than others.
Jeff, you’re cuting Ben way too much slack. Sure an apology was eventually forced out of him after some defensive lies, but the bottom line is, he didn’t make “mistakes”, he knowingly and deliberately stole someone else’s material. If he had stolen P.J. O’Rourke’s car he’d have gone to prison for his “mistake”. You may like him and his writing, but nevertheless he’s a thief. I’m not a lefty out to get him, jeez, I wish I could write like P.J., but plagiarism is theft and should disqualify you writing professionally. I’d say the same thing to ben that I’d say to the others you mention—Get the hell out of writing, get a real job, and if you behave yourself, come back in 10 years or so, and we’ll see about letting you be published again.
TW=length. As in you used a considerable length of rope in cutting Ben some slack.
Before everyone congratulates Mr. Domenech for possessing the bravery & courage to admit his guilt, take caution. The first thing he did when confronted with the evidence of his guilt was to A. obfuscate about what he did was really plagiarism B. Lie about recieving permission from PJ O’Rourke to use his words, & C. Accuse his own editors & The Hat of being plagiarists themselves by way of his cock & bull story of editors slipping in passages of Salon articles into his own (which he never read).
It’s only after the hammer really fell that he actually fessed up to his hackery. If you consider this to be noble & brave, fine. My hunch is, if there was even a smidgen of a chance that he could plead his innocence & establish even the most fleeting sliver of doubt on the charges against him, he would do it in a second.
“He’s a young man” seems to be the rationale of choice this month. The Boola Boola Mullah comes to mind. This young man’s admitted inexcusable behavior, like that of Lynndie English & Company at Abu Ghraib, has made the task of the rest of us seekers of wisdom and truth all the more difficult. Too bad youth is wasted on the young.
“Now it’s time for other folks to do the same: …Micah Wright…we’re looking at you.”
Amazon.com still says that Micah is a former Army Ranger, although it has been years since he was exposed as a fraud.
I can’t help but notice you didn’t credit G.B. Shaw for that.
We expect your resignation within the hour.
Sorry, but admitting what is painfully obvious in the face of overwhelming evidence isn’t taking responsibility.
It’s damage control.
See Cunningham, Randy “Duke;” cf. Palmeiro, Rafael.
Domenech lied and defamed others in his attempt to avoid responsibility (funny how fundie wingnuts ignore the Ten Commandments at their convenience). No pat on the back for reading aloud what’s written on the walls.
No, it isn’t. But this is:
What exactly are you expecting?
Stephen Ambrose’s death prevents him from any further apology.
Micah Wright’s apology (mark 2) is this:
Molly Ivins apologizes twice.
regarding Hussein:
and, again, regarding the Florence King incident
Here
Jason Leopold, though unapologetic and – in fact, has defenders who believe he was sloppy but factual – thoughtfully provides the following:
Larry Tribe:
Though there’s a longass column in the Crimson that takes Tribe and others to task about the whole writing culture. No link provided as I closed the window by accident and don’t feel like looking it up again.
Larry Tribe; Stephen Ambrose; Dan Rather; Jason Leopold; Joe Biden; Micah Wright; Ward Churchill; Eason Jordan; CNN’s agreement with Saddam’s Iraq; Joe Wilson; Steve Erlangerâ€â€we’re looking at you.
In addition to highlighting the apology you should also provide the accusations. He appologizes to the editors he stole from , but not those he accused of committing the plagiarism.
So long as you are setting the record straight you should include a link to his strident denials as well before the evidence continued to mount. http://redstate.org/story/2006/3/24/151255/259
The comments of support are worth reading as well. Is it a coincidence that his first reaction was to attack and deny?
Is it merely “obfuscation” to blame editors of his student paper for having inserted the offending language or is it lying?
Is it merely “obfuscation” to claim that one of his plagiarized pieces ran before the piece he plagiarized from?
Is it merely obfuscation to claim that he had permission from PJ Rourke to do a send up, when he never had permission, and the piece in quesion had no mention of Rourke.
Funny, Domenech did exactly what I predicted he would yesterday, he revised his strident denial, defense and attack when faced with the evidence from NRO:
3/24 at 5:25 PM. https://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php/weblog/entry/20056/#147042
Notice how NRO is the lead to his forced apology, if he hadnt been caught repeatedly plagiarizing for the NRO would he still have ultimately apologized, maybe.
How about this:
However, no statement at this point can really rehabilitate him. He needs to change as a person. If he comes back as the same name-calling, intolerant, sanctimonious prick that he’s been, then one can put him in the category of Rush Limbaugh, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart et al.
Given the odious company that he keeps over at Redstate, let’s just say I’m not holding my breath.
Ah, I see now, Geek. If the man believes in balanced budgets, democracy in Iraq and has second thoughts regarding universal abortion rights he cannot be redeemed. I assume you will call for public executions in the football stadium of you choice next, eh? Will Molly Ivins be on the block as well?
…and that he fall on his own sword on live TV, right?
I mean, that would really change him as a person.
Well, from a person. Not that his personhood hasn’t been under question from the moment the WaPo gig was first announced.
I’d have been more concerned about the odious company he was going to be keeping at WaPo—but that’s just me.
Dangit, Corvan got in ahead of me with the death-penalty response.
GoB @ 3:45 a
Yeah, I goggled “Jayson Blair apology” and got links to a 7200 word TIMES article about the affair, how JB resigned 2 weeks after the charges of his plain making shit up broke, more links to people expecting and never receiving an apology, JB’s round of the usual pop talk circuit (Larry King, Katie Couric, et al) and his book deal.
But an actual apology like Ben’s above? Hey, YOU find me the link since you made the comparison.
Let us all take a lesson from Geek. Can you feel the love?
All of the above describe me, so I think you’re a little off-base.
And the idea that the Republican party is the party of balanced budgets is quaint, but decisively outdated.
No, Ben is a hypocritical wanker–a hyper-moralistic fraud, a vicious name-caller who whines like a puppy when what goes around comes around. Someone who complains about people saying mean things about him, after hurling vile insults at everyone from Dan Froomkin to Arthur Miller to Coretta Scott King.
When he acts and talks like a Christian instead of a Pharisee, then I’ll maybe start believing that he’s actually learned from this.
I’m not a professional fraud like Ben Domenech. I’m a sanctimonious prick, but I’m an honest one. And I don’t whine when people treat me like I treat others.
Do people at the Washington Post openly wish for the deaths of millions of Americans and use Nazi-like rhetoric to describe their political opponents?
You see, I despise people like Thomas and Domenech. In my opinion, the Constitution exists to protect us from people like them. But I would never openly wish for their deaths or describe them as subhuman. Nor would I deny their status as my countrymen.
Ironic, then, that they’re the ones who ostentatiously claim to be men of Christ and accuse liberals of hating America. Because they hate a lot more of America than I do, and they are about as un-Christian as Marilyn Manson.
Geek, you prove my point every time you post. I thank you. I also wonder, have you set a date for the executions yet?
So, his writings were FAKED, but ACCURATE?
And yet you insist on one that meets your specifications. You’re right about one thing. There’s no talking him out of this. For the forseeable future, and possibly beyond, he’s done in the political opinion/journalism game.
That’s probably more so because he’s a conservative. You don’t see Jeff Gannon around much these days, do you?
Geek, you’ve got feelings for young Mr. Domenech, don’t you?
O my god, it gets worse. He lied about O’Rourke.
“Admit any wrongdoing,” Jeff? Guess not.
And o fuck that’s too funny: “We’re looking at you.” Go get em Jeffy. Hoo hoo hoo hoo…
Given the odious company that he keeps over at Redstate
WTF does that mean? I’ve been a member of Redstate sinced its inception, an occassional contributer and while I haven’t been reading it on a regular basis (I’ve actually missed this who l’affaire d’Domenech) I find nothing “odious” about it at all. Do I agree with every thing and every one on it? Of course not. I even gotten into some mighty heated discussions with people. However, I find it a much friendlier place and welcoming place than KosKiddiePalace (where I was banned after making two mild statements in support of Israel) and certainly “odious” applies to Indymedia or democraticunderground, not Redstate where they have hard and fast rules about trolling and profanity.
Geek, what I see is you won’t accept Domenech’s apology until he “sees the light” and becomes Markos’ cabana boy.
The Left doesn’t consider members of right of center mistaken on policy or wrong on issues, they consider them evil people who hold bad faith views.
Oh. BTW, just when did Kerry lose Lefty support when his “Christmas in Cambodia” fantasy, offered on the Congressional floor, blew up?
Did home schooling contribute to his downfall? Undoubtably. Any trained teacher can probably spot the connection be they left or right.
Ow. The Party of er, Hypermoralistic Values speaks. It’s for, let’s see, the children?
So anyway, are the remnant letfoids posting here today hung over? Yesterday was so much fun.
So good to know that the Party of Choice is so secure about its evident ethics that it will risk ruin in the polls of public opinion—that being it’s only yardstick—by hammering a tertiary-level story all day, all night, and again today.
But it was fun, wasn’t it? The entire evil neocon empire crashing into dust over movie reviews.
Because the left is so Christ-like, with it’s ten pound bibles and perjury and real estate fraud and condom Christmas tree ornaments and drunks and amoral collectivism and career liars and various character pathologies.
What a yawn. Like the urban secularist moral-relativists bitching—from gay-bar blog screens?—because Dubya hit the bottle. Because it’s so Christian to not forgive a Christian. It rings so true.
BECAUSE OF THE SHEER INTEGRITY!
BECAUSE OF THE DAMAGE DONE!
BECAUSE OF THE MORAL SUPERIORITY!
Maybe somebody needs to post a list of them-vs-us political sins in order to bring full perspective to the partisan divide. Any bets on whether the character-disordered, appearances-centric left will emerge victorious?
I could do a quick review of the news of, say, this morning, just to light things off.
You’re being far too easy on him, Jeff. I suspect if NRO hadn’t come up with more examples, he would have stuck with “the dog ate my permission to copy those articles”.
I can understand the folks over at Red State; for the last several days they had seen Ben hit with baseless and disgusting charges. As I pointed out over there, “it’s only a witchhunt” is a valid defense only until a witch is found; after that it’s a distraction.
And the Left side of the blogosphere, while getting a scalp, did not acquit themselves well in this matter. They went completely off the rails. As TS9 has said, this is likely to boomerang on them. Who else has plagiarized? I guarantee you, there are going to be people going over ever word Jane Hamsher ever wrote.
Good pointer on that Sherrod Brown reference, Beth!
You all do understand:
The man lifted other people’s work and presented it as his own.
He was presumably conscious while doing this.
He initially denied doing it.
He actually accused his editors of an offense he knew he committed.
He knew what he did, and he turned around and made accusations against others he knew were not true.
He knowingly tried to cover his own rear by charging others with offenses he KNEW he committed.
He sat at a keyboard, fully aware he was guilty of the charges leveled at him (could even recall the physical acts of cutting and pasting from other people’s work, choosing a word here and ther to change or add), and decided accusing his former editors was a good strategy for dealing with the situation.
Unbelievable.
You’re acquainted with Thomas the Eliminationist, I presume.
http://www.redstate.com/comments/2006/3/24/151255/259/10#10
Or, how about this:
http://www.redstate.com/comments/2006/3/24/151255/259/80#80
Note that the person referring to liberals like Goebbels referred to Jews is a director of that site. Tbone is merely a psychopath in good standing over there.
Etc.
Right, but you forgot one: He’s so damn evil and worse, he speaks for the entire right! Have we set a date for the executions yet?
If anybody—Anybody—touches my ass,
I’m out of here.
Seriously.
Make a move toward my butt, and I’ll rip your fucking throat out.
But rubbing my tummy is okay. Just stay away from my ass.
Geek, you attributed those statements to Mr. Domench a few minutes ago. Is this you evidence?
Speaking of Augustine, had I known that the Pope walks among us as Geek, Esq. I’d never have posted all those snarly anti-left comments at PW. Forgive me father…
BECAUSE OF THE LITERAL CONNOTATIONS!
Geek
Get OVER yourself.
Thomas is one I’ve gone nose to nose with, but I call Goodwin on you because you AGAIN with the Nazi references. Just what friggin power do you think Thomas has besides rhetoric that not everyone even on Redstate agrees with?
Howard “I hate Republicans and everything they stand for” Dean has oodles more power by reason of his position within the DNC than Thomas does.
oh lord “Godwin”
need.more.coffee.
Good thought layout/conclusion, JG.
Let’s see if the Left responds to a valid either-or question or says nuts and refuses. They’re caught either way. That is, either responding to your question—which is implied whether you articulate it or not—or not addressing the question.
What was done by them, this was another political drama/theater intended to shock the raw audience.
Bad for them that most of the voters are probably more unsettled by the maliciousness of the show than Ben’s plagiarism.
If stupid trolls just howl at the moon, smart trolls twist. Neither put any cards on the table. I don’t agree with anything Ben D. did, but for moi, the smart-troll work on this one gets a bookmark.
I hope this troll crowd never learns. They’re so wonderfully self-destructive.
“All of this”, he said while rocking on his porch and chewing on the stem of his corn cob pipe, “reminds me of my Senior year. We had yearbooks back then. Big, nasty things. Bound in cardboard, full of pictures of acne-faced boys in ties… Well, us Seniors got to put what we thought were meaningful quotes under our head shots. I guess to distract attention from our protruding adams apple’s and bad eighties hair. I remember choosing a self indulgent Roger Waters lyric… I also remember an agreement that we all made. To follow up our quote attribution with the words ‘…and Joe Biden’. I’d say about half of us went through with it. You see, the boy was running for President back then..”, he paused to cough up a lunger that tasted of blueberry waffles and Rebel Yell bourbon, “.. Yep, I wonder how he did?”
TW: type. As in: so hungover I can’t believe I can type.
Ken
You forgot the closing parody tag, correct?
Geek’s just upset that RedState and other sites on the right have become increasingly and vocally intolerant of the left’s Jew hating.
Wait until we get to their racism and homophobia.
I don’t think anyone sees Domenech’s meltdown as a symbol or symptom of the entire right, and if they do they are wrong. When I think of bloggers and commentators on the right, I don’t immediately think “plagiarism.”
A good number of conservatives urged resignation as soon as a certain amount of credible evidence of plagiarism surfaced. Michelle Malkin of all people spoke up pretty quickly when such evidence emerged, for which I give her rare (unprecedented, even) credit. There were others, and I was actually pretty impressed by these reactions, though I shouldn’t have been surprised; plagiarism is pretty indefensible.
However, what we may take from this affair is that Domenech is a symbol or symptom of a hopefully small subset of the right. Just check out RedState’s reaction. Everyone was falling over themselves to deny the obvious evidence and believe his initial, fraudulent, sort of but not really explanation. (There were a few exceptions on RedState, a couple of which even now still survive the banning and deletions.)
This reaction is basically, “explain away the evidence, refrain from questioning any conservative ally for anything, and blame it on the liberals.” It got pretty ridiculous, fast.
So this whole mess does give everyone, right and left, a useful question to ponder. The next time something like this happens to someone on your ideological side, who do you want to act like: Michelle Malkin, who probably hated to do it but decided to stand for principle, or most of RedState, which reacted in hysteria, denial, and an embarrassing willingness to embrace implausible lies and “obfuscations”?
Ben has owned up to his mistakes. He has, as I anticipated he would, taken that most difficult first step to rehabilitating his credibility.
Don’t make me laugh. He was caught. He tried to fib and cover up and blame everyone else, but the adults wouldn’t let him. They let him resign. Now he is just trying to save his ass from utter destruction.
But nobody with any real sense is actually gloating over the pain this sad kid must be feeling. What they are gloating over is the blowback in the face of Jim Brady, and other incompetents at the Post. Brady’s stupidity and arrogance is inexcusable; HE should be FIRED.
Ben at least knows what he did. Brady is clueless.
Wowzy wow wow. I know I’m going to be sorry I asked this, but what “Jew hating”?
Nice to see someone admitting Kos, Atrios, their commenters and the trolls here have no real sense.
Not my point.
My point is that Ben is the sacrificial symbol of All That’s Wrong With The Right. Ben embodies the leftist rage at months—if not years—of grasping at non-issues and coming up empty. Ben’s the suddenly ethical left’s suddenly ethical pet project.
It’s obviously the right isn’t pathologically dishonest. It’s equally obvious from this little moonbat show that it more or less knows it’s largely bankrupt of ideas, perspective, reason, and solutions.
most of what I’ve read from blogs that that trash our President shows from the get go they went after the Post. However, knowing that the Post, unlike the Washington Times is not owned by the leader of a cult, is lefty. They probably picked this Jeff Gannon wannabe on purpose so they could discredit the right.
The moonbats gloating over the “gotcha” are not demonstrating the subtle composeure we did and continue to demonstrate after we busted Rather.
TB
Guess you don’t follow all the ANSWER, NION marches (including March 18..have fun with the pics), Indymedia, the anti-Israel screeds on leftist blogs, etc.
The Judenhass is quite prevalent, fig-leafed under a “but we’re not anti-Jew, just anti-Israel” schtick.
I didn’t know a person had to posess power in order to think like a Nazi.
Augustine/Domenech and Thomas are ideological fellow travelers. For that reason alone any diminishing of their influence or ability to have a platform for their radical, hateful ideology is a good thing.
There are plenty of socially conservative writers and even journalists who aren’t unhinged (credit to Michelle Malkin) hatemongers.
And a hearty fuck you to the superior gentleman from the left side of the aisle who calls “really, really, really evil” at the drop of a rhetorical phrase. Or a Republican movie review. Somebody needs to climb back down off that particular cross because the crowd’s gone home.
“He’s still a young man” is not a rationale, but it is a starting point. Youth matters because the sooner you start, the further you can go. There is a reason that every criminal offense is not a death penalty offense. It’s because society believes that people can change, hopefully for the better.
“Fired?” Fired for hiring a guy that plagiarized a few things, was quickly caught, and then properly let go in response to the revelation? What an insane, immature standard. What type of vetting process do you think newspapers make to hire known public writers? Not even close to a firing offense, especially since BD never cribbed anything on the Post’s watch.
Though I have to agree here:
The guy made his apology and we should accept it (or not) and move on, without lionizing his character for making the subsequent apology, nor minimizing the cardinality of the sin of plagiarism … in a writer.
Geez Geek
You really work that Nazi reference with such loving attention. Careful not to make a mess on your keyboard.
Now, do you think it makes Domenech (what did HE say that was ‘nazi’ like?) MORE ‘Nazi’ by comparison or make ‘Nazi’ less odious by comparison?
Sorry, Darleen. If you had actually read everything Atrios has written about this affair, you would see: Atrios isn’t gloating about Ben. He may be amazed at Ben’s complete and utter self-destruction, but gloating? No. Atrios consistently makes the point that the editors at the Post, in their haste to cow tow to the right, brought this disaster on themselves.
Ben can hardly be viewed as a serious loss or setback for the right. He may be symbolic of certain ills on the right, but he is not a measurable loss. He’s just a 24-year-old kid without any real world experience who, through familial connections, eventually lucked into his dream job – which lasted for all of three days before his past caught up. He is a blip. He will be forgotten. A bad joke.
Word to the wise: The more the right defends him and keeps this story alive, the sillier they look and the more they paint themselves with the mess a mere child has made with the fingerpaints.
Where have you gone, Scooter Libby?
Thanks for the link. Apart from the 50-something white guy with the “smash the jewish state” sign, where’s the anti-semitism?
And I’m curious about that guy. He couldn’t look more like a right-winger who went to the event to discredit it by appearing with an outrageous sign. Or maybe he’s just a nutjob who, like many nutjobs, found refuge among the Marxists. At any rate, these people are not anything like mainstream liberals. I don’t doubt that anti-Israel-policies fervor could conceivably morph into anti-Jewish fervor among some of the extreme types who gravitate toward the Marxists, but I don’t see it, apart from the one questionable guy.
“Fired?†Fired for hiring a guy that plagiarized a few things, was quickly caught, and then properly let go in response to the revelation? What an insane, immature standard. What type of vetting process do you think newspapers make to hire known public writers? Not even close to a firing offense, especially since BD never cribbed anything on the Post’s watch.
If Jim Brady had come to you and asked you who would be the best blogger to represent the right, would you, even flying on an acid trip, have ever recommended Ben Domenech?
If you were even considering hiring him, would have done the piss-poor job Brady did vetting the guy?
If you were the publisher on an on-line newspaper, would you have an executive editor who didn’t know how to Google?
I rest my case.
kow tow to the right
Oh fer th’love of …..
Agreed with you, Hell no.
Very possibly. Journalists and columnists are not vetted by a team of investigators at major newspapers who comb through their previous writings and look for plagiarism; that’s a blogosopheric phenomenon.
An “Army of (pissed off) Davids, to borrow a title from Glenn Reynolds.
Again, this is where you’re applying an unrealistic standard. How many things has Domenich published, and how many times has he plagiarized. You assume that when an editor hires a journalist or columnist, that it’s SOP for them to immediately go through the history of his published work and googles, hunting for plagiarism.
They don’t. Though I bet they will with the next blogospheric hire.
If there ever is one after this trailblazing punch pisser.
Again, Brady may have egg on his face and have exercised some bad judgment, but “fired?” C’mon.
tb,
Try this.
Thankfully, you won’t need to scroll down. Do so at your own risk.
Ha. According to my “progressive” friends, Libby was the guy to take down the entire Administration. Intently delivered with a serious, moralistic tone … kinda like Geek’s.
The 90’s Most Corrupt, Impeached Administration in History made things hard on leftists, didn’t it? And when you’re just so consistently right on little stuff like domestic and foreign policies, too …
And about whining, remember this leftard mantra? I just want my country back!
Darlene: Thanks for correcting my spelling.
But note: Jim Brady admitted (to Kurtz?) weeks ago that he was kow towing to the right, although he didn’t use that specific word. Paraphrasing, he said that the White House and others were putting the heat on him for having that Froomkin column, and that he felt he owed them bringing in a right-wing columnist to balance. I’m too old and lazy to give you the link right now. Just use Google.
Old Chinese proverb: “He who kow tows may wake up in kow dung.”
TB
What is it about the second pic in the series (“9/11 was a FRAUD…an excuse to impose the US & Israeli Empire), the ubiquitous kaffiyehs and “Palestinian” flags, and the crowd chanting “from river to sea, ‘Palestine’ will be free” that is not Judenhass?
Geek, I share your disgust when people dehumanize their political opponents. It also bothers me when I hear those waving a red flag or wearing a Che t-shirt spew such hatred toward conservatives. Especially when their political goals have a history of murdered millions for not thinking correctly.
Having said that, I’m not much of a fan of RedState/FreeRepublic (many at RS are Freepers) since they tend to think conservatism is defined by being for limited government except for pseudo-conservative ideals such as being pro-life–all the way to its all knowing all seeing government controlling absurdity. While that meme provides a sizable market for conservative pundits to peddle their wares, it’s beginning to have detrimental affect on GOP voters.
Conservatism, IMO, has taken a wrong turn since the early nineties. And I think the polls are beginning to show the discontent. The comical part, IMO, is the left is misreading it as being anti-war.
I hope in the near future the circle jerk between conservative pundits and the religious right comes to an end and the GOP can get back to limited government.