Ben Domenech
Encyclopedia
Ben Domenech is an American 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. After first denying but then apologizing and ceasing online activity for some time, Domenech returned to continue editing and writing for Redstate
, Human Events
, and other conservative publications. Domenech is the managing editor for health care policy at The Heartland Institute, the editor of The New Ledger
, and hosts a daily free market podcast at BigGovernment.
, the White House
Liaison for the Department of the Interior
, is a cousin of Puerto Rican
Democrat
Francisco Domenech
, and is descended from 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).
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.
, in addition to his personal blog. The NRO 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".
Domenech said in his Washingtonpost.com bio that he was the youngest political appointee of the George W. Bush
administration, although this claim could not be independently verified. 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 books by Michelle Malkin
, Ramesh Ponnuru
, and Hugh Hewitt
.
The Washington Post received over 1,000 complaints for hiring him. Media Matters
also criticized the choice. 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
".)
Domenech also was criticized for a post quoting from a First Things article by Richard John Neuhaus 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.
providing "a daily mix of commentary, analysis and cultural criticism". The blog, "Red America", launched on March 21, 2006, but Domenech resigned three days later after only six posts, after other bloggers posted evidence that Domenech had plagiarized work from the Washington Post, The New Yorker, humorist P. J. O'Rourke
, and several other writers.
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. O'Rourke denied Domenech's claim that the humorist had granted permission to use his words, adding that he could not recall ever meeting the college student. 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
.
Commenters at Daily Kos also uncovered two additional 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. The second, a review of a Wallflowers' album, borrowed passages from one published in Rolling Stone
by Tom Moon earlier the same month.
On March 24, 2006, the editors of National Review confirmed on its blog The Corner
that Domenech appeared to have plagiarized for at least one article he had written for that publication:
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.
announced Domenech's resignation, explaining:
Domenech initially denied the charges, blaming several different editors for similarities to other articles. The various editors said that they were not responsible for reviews that Domenech represented to them as being original. 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". Blogger Glenn Reynolds
wrote that bloggers "didn't like him because he was a conservative and he was given real estate at The Washington Post. Their goal was to find something they could use to get rid of him, and they succeeded".
and for The Washington Times
.
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
writer and blogger who co-founded the RedState
RedState
RedState is a conservative American political weblog.The site is currently a subsidiary of Eagle Publishing, Inc., a conservative publishing house which also owns Regnery Publishing and the weekly magazine Human Events...
group blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
. In March 2006, he was hired to write a conservative blog for washingtonpost.com but resigned after three days amid allegations of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
during his college years. After first denying but then apologizing and ceasing online activity for some time, Domenech returned to continue editing and writing for Redstate
RedState
RedState is a conservative American political weblog.The site is currently a subsidiary of Eagle Publishing, Inc., a conservative publishing house which also owns Regnery Publishing and the weekly magazine Human Events...
, Human Events
Human Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
, and other conservative publications. Domenech is the managing editor for health care policy at The Heartland Institute, the editor of The New Ledger
The New Ledger
The New Ledger is an American web publication which pairs aggregated and ranked news stories with right of center opinion articles by free-market minded moderates, libertarians and conservatives...
, and hosts a daily free market podcast at BigGovernment.
Personal
Domenech is the son of Douglas DomenechDouglas Domenech
Douglas Domenech, a native of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and resident of Loudoun Conunty, Virginia,, is the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the United States Department of the Interior and a Bush Administration appointee to the White House Working Group on the Political Status of Puerto Rico,...
, the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
Liaison for the Department of the Interior
United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
, is a cousin of Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Francisco Domenech
Francisco Domenech
Francisco J. Domenech is the former Director of the Office of Legislative Services of Puerto Rico .- Superdelegate controversy :...
, and is descended from Puerto Rican politician, Manuel V. Domenech
Manuel V. Domenech
Manuel V. Domenech was a Puerto Rican politician and engineer.-Early years:Domenech was born in Isabela, Puerto Rico...
, former legislator, Mayor of Ponce
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
, Commissioner of the Interior, Treasurer, and acting Governor of Puerto Rico
Governor of Puerto Rico
The Governor of Puerto Rico is the Head of Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Since 1948, the Governor has been elected by the people of Puerto Rico...
. He was home schooled
Homeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
by his mother using the Calvert School
Calvert School
Calvert School is a kindergarten through 8th grade co-educational private school with a day school operation in Baltimore, Maryland and an associated homeschooling division that administers a curriculum shipped to families around the United States and the world...
curriculum (and by correspondence
Distance education
Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom...
for his last three years of high school).
He attended the College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
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.
Career
His career in punditry began as a teenager when he began a column, "Any Given Sunday," for National Review OnlineNational Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, in addition to his personal blog. The NRO 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".
Domenech said in his Washingtonpost.com bio that he was the youngest political appointee of the George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
administration, although this claim could not be independently verified. He worked as a speechwriter
Speechwriter
A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches that will be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are used by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors.-Skills and training:...
for Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
Tommy Thompson
Thomas George "Tommy" Thompson , a United States Republican politician, was the 42nd Governor of Wisconsin, after which he served as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Thompson was a candidate for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, but dropped out early after a poor performance in polls...
. He has also worked as contributing editor
Contributing editor
A contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. The contributing editor regularly contributes articles to the publication but does not actually edit articles, and the title...
for National Review Online; two years as the chief speechwriter for Sen. John Cornyn
John Cornyn
John Cornyn, III is the junior United States Senator for Texas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 111th U.S. Congress....
(R
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
-TX
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
); and an editor at Regnery Publishing
Regnery Publishing
Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C., is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine...
, where he worked on books by Michelle Malkin
Michelle Malkin
Michelle Malkin is an American conservative blogger, political commentator, and author. Her weekly syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites. She is a Fox News Channel contributor and has been a guest on MSNBC, C-SPAN, and national radio programs...
, Ramesh Ponnuru
Ramesh Ponnuru
Ramesh Ponnuru is a Washington, D.C.-based Indian American columnist and a senior editor for National Review magazine. He is also a contributor to TIME magazine and WashingtonPost.com...
, and Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, lawyer, academic, and author. An outspoken Republican, evangelical Christian, he comments on society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is also a law professor at Chapman University School of Law.-...
.
The Washington Post received over 1,000 complaints for hiring him. Media Matters
Media Matters
Media Matters can refer to:* Media Matters for America, progressive media watchdog group founded by author David Brock* The radio program Media Matters hosted by communications professor Robert W. McChesney...
also criticized the choice. 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
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
as a "Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
".)
Domenech also was criticized for a post quoting from a First Things article by Richard John Neuhaus about Freakonomics
Freakonomics
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been described as...
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.
Plagiarism
Domenech, who wrote for RedState under the pseudonym "Augustine", was hired by the Washington Post's online arm to write a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
providing "a daily mix of commentary, analysis and cultural criticism". The blog, "Red America", launched on March 21, 2006, but Domenech resigned three days later after only six posts, after other bloggers posted evidence that Domenech had plagiarized work from the Washington Post, The New Yorker, humorist P. J. O'Rourke
P. J. O'Rourke
Patrick Jake "P. J." O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, writer, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on...
, and several other writers.
Domenech was first accused of appropriating a chapter from O'Rourke's 1990 book "Modern Manners" for an editorial in The Flat Hat
The Flat Hat
The Flat Hat is the official student newspaper at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. It prints Tuesdays and Fridays during the College's academic year. It began printing twice-weekly in 2007; since its inception in 1911, The Flat Hat had printed weekly.The newspaper is printed as...
, a weekly student newspaper at William and Mary. O'Rourke denied Domenech's claim that the humorist had granted permission to use his words, adding that he could not recall ever meeting the college student. Blogs Eschaton and Daily Kos
Daily Kos
Daily Kos is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party...
soon posted links to movie reviews of Bringing Out the Dead
Bringing Out the Dead
Bringing Out the Dead is a 1999 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, and based on the novel by Joe Connelly with the screenplay by Paul Schrader...
, The Bachelor, and The World Is Not Enough
The World Is Not Enough
The World Is Not Enough is the nineteenth spy film in the James Bond film series, and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Michael Apted, with the original story and screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It...
written by Domenech for the same student paper. The reviews appear to be taken nearly verbatim from reviews published by Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
and an amateur Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
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
Jonah Goldberg
Jonah Jacob Goldberg is an American conservative syndicated columnist and author. Goldberg is known for his contributions on politics and culture to , of which he is editor-at-large...
.
Commenters at Daily Kos also uncovered two additional 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
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a 2001 Japanese-American computer animated science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing video games. It was the first photorealistic computer animated feature film and also holds the record for the most...
, contained a lengthy passage nearly identical to one by Steve Murray of the Cox News Service. The second, a review of a Wallflowers' album, borrowed passages from one published in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
by Tom Moon earlier the same month.
On March 24, 2006, the editors of National Review confirmed on its blog The Corner
The Corner
The Corner is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns and adapted for television by Simon and David Mills. It premiered on premium cable network HBO in the United States on April 16,...
that Domenech appeared to have plagiarized for at least one article he had 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.
Resignation
At 1:17 p.m. ET on March 24, 2006, Washington Post online editor Jim BradyJames M. Brady
James M. Brady, known as Jim Brady, is an American journalist and the Executive Editor of the washingtonpost.com from November 2004 until December 2008.Brady was born in Queens, New York City and grew up in Huntington, New York...
announced Domenech's resignation, 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 several different editors for similarities to other articles. The various editors said that they were not responsible for reviews that Domenech represented to them as being original. 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". Blogger Glenn Reynolds
Glenn Reynolds
Glenn Harlan Reynolds is Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee, and is best known for his weblog, Instapundit, one of the most widely read American political weblogs...
wrote that bloggers "didn't like him because he was a conservative and he was given real estate at The Washington Post. Their goal was to find something they could use to get rid of him, and they succeeded".
Leave of absence and return
Domenech took a leave of absence from RedState, but remained on the organization's board. In 2007 he began publishing posts at RedState again. and started a new personal blog, "this is an adventure". During the 2008 election, Domenech wrote multiple columns for Human Events.comHuman Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
and for The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
.
External links
- This is an Adventure personal blog
- Redstate.org
- Conservative blogger recently hired by Washington Post appears to be serial plagiarist - Raw Story
- Joe Conason on the alleged plagiarism Salon.comSalon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
- Ben Domenech Resigns