Copy Cat

Ken AshfordRight Wing and Inept MediaLeave a Comment

Uh, oh.

Looks like Ben Domenech, the new conservative blogger hired by WaPo to give it "balance", has a bit of a plagiarism problem.

Like this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this…

As of my latest update to this post (1:30 pm),  Red America (Domenech’s Washington Post blog) — as well as WaPo itself — have been silent on the plagiarism charges.  It’s been nearly 24 hours since Ben’s last post.

UPDATE:  Blogometer has the most complete list to date:

Here’s an as-complete-as-we-can-manage list of alleged incidents:

There’s also the problem of Ben making shit up.

UPDATE:  Irony alert — please read what Ben Domenech wrote regarding Jason Blair (who was fired from the New York Times for not, you know, doing the work) back in May 2003, :

Jayson Blair is just one more journalistic pezzonovante amidst a crowd of his peers. The only difference is, he’s unashamed of his pretty little lies. In fact, he’s proud of them.

And even more ironically, this comment from his blog in February 2002:

And who says there’s no fallout from plagiarism?

Indeed, Ben.

UPDATE:  You know it’s bad when Michelle Malkin writes:

I cheered for Ben, the editor of my last book at Regnery, when he announced his new position. I criticized unhinged bloggers on the Left who leveled vicious ad hominem attacks against him. It’s clear, as the good folks at Red State (which Ben co-founded) note, that his detractors were on a search-and-destroy mission from the get-go.

But now the determined moonbat hordes have exposed multiple instances of what clearly appear to me to be blatant lifting of entire, unique passages by Ben from other writers.

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The bottom line is: I know it when I see it. And, painfully, Domenech’s detractors, are right. He should own up to it and step down. Then, the Left should cease its sick gloating and leave him and his family alone.\

UPDATE:  Looks like lots of the right blogosphere is jumping off the Ben bus, all except Redstate (Ben’s former blog "home"), which is spewing out hyperventilating posts like "We Must Defend" and "We Must Attack".

UPDATE:  Ezra provides some bigger thoughts:

In some ways, the most interesting thing about Ben Domenech’s plagiarism is its discovery. If you’re a young writer reading this blog, tattoo this on your typing fingers: The internet never forgets.

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A California political operative I know had a maxim he liked to repeat: Don’t ever write it if you can say it, don’t ever say it if you can whisper it, don’t ever whisper it if you can imply it, don’t ever imply it if you can nudge it, don’t ever nudge it if you can wink it, and don’t ever wink it if you can help it. I thought it a pretty ugly piece of advice, but spot-on if you wanted to enter politics. It’s why I decided to become a writer instead. But man is my generation, packed full of LiveJournals and MySpaces and blogs and e-mails and messageboards, going to get bit in the ass by that aphorism.