Box Turtle Ben Go Bye-Bye

It had to happen. Box Turtle Ben has fallen on his sword:

Ben Domenech Resigns

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.

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.

We appreciate the speed and thoroughness with which our readers and media outlets surfaced these allegations. Despite the turn this has taken, we believe this event, among other things, testifies to the positive and powerful role that the Internet can play in the the practice of journalism.

We also remain committed to representing a broad spectrum of ideas and ideologies in our Opinions area.

Jim Brady
Executive Editor, washingtonpost.com

So, Brady has another wingnut in the wings? Or will BlueStateBlogger commence? (Note to Jim Brady, I'm available! For a high price.)

The Dog Ate My Homework

Remember that old Reader's Digest feature, "Was My Face Red?" WaPo isn't there yet, but it will be:

Howie "Married to a Republican Strategist Who Currently Works for John McCain" Kurtz, WaPo: Some Readers See Red Over Post.com's New Blogger

Late yesterday, the liberal Web sites Daily Kos and Atrios posted examples of what appeared to be instances of plagiarism from Domenech's writing at the William & Mary student paper. Three sentences of a 1999 Domenech review of a Martin Scorsese film were identical to a review in Salon magazine, and several sentences in Domenech's piece on a James Bond movie closely resembled one in the Internet Movie Database. Domenech said he needed to research the examples but that he never used material without attribution and had complained about a college editor improperly adding language to some of his articles.

All his editors were in a giant conspiracy to scour the web for better writing to pass off as his? Balderdash.

Update: Roger Ailes (the good one) has the funniest Box Turtle Ben headline yet:

Bitch Set Himself Up

RedAmerica Lives Another Day

As I predicted, the racist plagiarist is still employed by the WaPo. Amazing. What do you have to do to get fired by that paper? Here's a great deconstruction by Joe Conason on salon.com. (I saw this on AMERICAblog.) You have to register to read it, but it's worth it:

salon.com: A portrait of the blogger as a young plagiarist

First sentences:

Does the Washington Post intend to maintain journalistic standards in the brave new blogosphere? Or are those standards incompatible with the Post company's ambitions for WashingtonPost.com?

Last sentence:

For now it looks like the paper hired the love child of Janet Cooke and Donald Segretti.

Washington Post's New Racist Blogger

Steve Gilliard points out that Ben Domenech posted this last month, without comment, at First Things:

People who are poor and black are a drag on society. We would all be better off if there were fewer of them. Since we have, with little success, spent trillions of dollars over the past several decades trying to make poor blacks non-poor, it is time we recognize that there are more efficient means of eliminating the drag. Stated so bluntly, many readers might find that way of putting the matter morally problematic. The extermination of anti-social elements does, after all, have a somewhat controversial history.

So the Post has given an out-and-out racist a blog platform. Shame, shame. Katherine Graham must be rolling over in her grave.

RedAmerica, the blog, should be exterminated.

Falling Upward

The Washington Post has hired a 24-year-old, home-schooled, white male Republican blogger to write a blog for its site called "RedAmerica". Straight out of the Bush Crony School, as Ben Domenech had a summer job as a White House speechwriter in 2002. (At the age of 20, I'm sure he had a lot to offer President English Mangler. I bet he contributed "heh, heh", at the very least.)

Here's what he called people like me on his very first day on the WaPo: "the shrieking denizens" of the Democrats’ "increasingly extreme base [] the unhinged elements of their base, motivated by partisan rage."

Oh, yeah, I'm feeling the balance there.

He had a high opinion of the Washington Post while he was in the White House:

8.16.2002

Live and Almost Legal at the EEOB
Today is my last day working in the speechwriting office. It's been a great summer, and I've done a good amount of work. It's been an interesting experience to work in this office, to see the reality of what goes on here as opposed to the Post's version. Believe me, truth is far more interesting than fiction.

Blogtopia has a little something to say about this.

Eschaton:

Wankers of the Day

Memories of Domenech

Meet Ben Domenech

Meet Young Ben Domenech

Life Among the Domenech

Looking in the Mirror

Clan Domenech

Commie!


The News Blog: Post to hire home schooled wingnut for blog

If you ever wonder about the power of the GOP training machine, this little freak, who should be humping a guard post in Iraq, gets a blog on the WaPo. In a city mostly minority, you think a young black person or Latino or a woman would get the opportunity to expound on politics. Yeah, right.

But when you suggest such a thing, the blogzombies of the right scream about racial spoils and the like. But not when their little undead can get what they want.

What the hell has this little freak done to merit being hired by the WaPo to expound on politics?

Be a white male Republican with friends.

[]

This is what the WaPo's newest columnist said about the funeral of Coretta Scott King

Remember this from racist Red State

By: Augustine

The President visits the funeral of a Communist. And phones in a message to the March for Life. I think we can get a little pissed about this.
This story shall the good man teach his son

Yep, I'm sure the Washington Post's large black audience will wonder why it's newest columnist is a racist who thinks the Kings were communists for wanting blacks to have equal rights.

Late Nite FDL: Aw Shucks, Brady, You Shouldn’t Have

Just as the time of reckoning approaches and the Washington Post will, like it or no, have to take responsibility for all the flagrant, credulous warmongering it did in a fit of BushCo. access rapture, you guys hire the most thick-witted, mouth breathing home schooled freak you could lay your hands on. The respectable journalists who have managed to survive the Patrick Ruffini sycophancy of John WATB Harris, the jejune truthiness of Deborah Howell and the simple fact that one of the biggest stories of last year was how the paper’s own superstar fucked you over and then wouldn’t talk to you about it are no doubt cringing in the bathroom stalls.

Talking Points Memo

So, to 'balance' Froomkin, who may be a commentator with liberal tendencies, the Post goes out and gets a high octane Republican political activist who hits the ground running with a tirade of Red State America revanchism and even journalism itself.

That's balance. That's the Post's balance.

Managing perceptions is the death of good journalism, especially manufactured perceptions, and even more those manufactured for the easily cowed.

I'm embarrassed for the Post. Embarrassed by the Post.

Their explanation doesn't cut it. If they want to make a blogger Crossfire with a firebreather on the left and on the right, they should do it. It might even be interesting. But here they've just been played by bullies and played for fools.

Jump! How high?

I can think of more than a few actual journalists at the Post who must feel a bit embarrassed too.