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March 25, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Three Days, Six Posts
That's how long Ben Domenech lasted as a conservative blogger at The Washington Post. He just resigned amid a fast-developing plagiarism scandal.
Here is an excerpt from the note posted by Jim Brady, the executive editor of washingtonpost.com:
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.
More later.
UPDATE: Domenech's demise is the story in the blogosphere right now. His name has remained the top search item at Technorati for hours, and bloggers across the political spectrum are reacting to the news they helped make.
Domenech himself was defensive at first, both in a post of his own at RedState and in comments to The Right Angle (follow-up post here). In Bill Clinton-like fashion -- the kind conservatives like Domenech never really accepted from the former president -- Domenech later voiced contrition for using other people's work " inappropriately and without attribution," and for his "obfuscation."
Domenech's RedState co-founder, Mike Krempasky, posted "On Behalf Of RedState." Krempasky both scolded and praised Domenech; he apologized on behalf of RedState for initially failing to believe the plagiarism charges despite the strong evidence; and he condemned as "the lowest of the low" those who went after Domenech for purely political reasons.
"[F]or his failing, his career is in ruins, and his public reputation is in tatters," Krempasky wrote. "It is a long road back for Ben Domenech. And he's going to pay a steep price to regain lost trust among colleagues, readers, and friends." And those who targeted Domenech with threats, obscene commentary and rumors? "Loathesome, vile and disgusting -- their contempt for civil behavior surpassed only by the emptiness of their own souls."
Not surprisingly, the mainstream media are happily covering a story that makes bloggers look bad. The Post, AP, Editor & Publisher, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, all have stories. Even the Washington bureau of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tasked one of its reporters to cover the news rather than rely on wire copy.
The media columnist at the L.A. Times also added his thoughts, elitist cheap shots at home-schooling included. (Full disclosure: Our children are home-schooled -- and they learn far more manners and ethics at home than they would public school these days.)
My guess is that the MSM superiority complex will become increasingly evident as they tackle this topic and it's meaning for the blogosphere in coming days. Sadly, as Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters noted, bloggers of all types have provided plenty of ammunition.
Check the extended entry for excerpts from the blogosphere that struck me as the most insightful.
-- Eschaton: "The moral of box-turtle Ben. It's very simple. Stop trying to appease conservatives. You never will. Stop worrying about 'bias.' Continue worrying about doing good journalism. ... [I]f the Post had announced a 'Blue America' along with 'Red America,' Ben's plagiarism likely would've never been discovered. The outrage was over the fact that once again conservatives had succeeded in mau-mauing a mainstream media outlet into balancing reporters with conservatives."
Matt Stoller agreed at MyDD. And in a separate post, he concluded: "We're now seeing the rot from the inside. The conservative movement is nearly totally bereft of ethical standards. Torn between loyalty and integrity, they pick neither, a lukewarm mixture of contempt for those who point out ethical violations, a reflexive angry defensiveness, and a melancholy regognition that supreme self-righteousness might not be the most appropriate attitude in every instance."
-- Jeff Jarvis: "[W]hy do you feel as if you have to buy, rent, lease or own a blogger? There are tons of good bloggers out there from the right, left and libertarian persuasions. Quote them. Link to them. Blogroll them. Aggregate them. Sell ads on them. You don't have to hire them anymore. This is the distributed age, remember?"
-- The Moderate Voice: "Newspapers should take into account (as if they haven't noticed) that if they have what is effectively a blog on the left, people on the right will then clamor for a blog on the right, which will then upset people on the left, etc. One solution is that, perhaps in their rush to get bloggers, newspapers could try to get some of the more thoughtful and less polarizing writers on the left and right (more ideas and less adjective-hurling)."
-- PressThink: "I hope Jim Brady will do the right thing, the creative thing. ... An open competition on the Web to be the next political blogger at post.com, but instead of hiring one "red state" person and leaving it at that (a strategic error in my opinion), Brady should say that three slots will be filled over the coming year: one from column right, one from column left, and a third voice that is definitely neither of those, which could mean libertarian -- or not."
-- Public Eye: "Let's say another conservative is hired to take over for Domenech. Is the Web site obligated to launch a 'Blue State' blog? Most editorial pages contain a mixture of voices, some conservative, some liberal some sort of moderate. But is there any obligation to operate under some formula? ... On the one hand, it seems preferable to give space to a wide variety of opinions. On the other, this obsessive attention to 'balance' inevitably leads to 'Crossfire'-type discussions."
-- Ragged Thots: "[F]orget about the 'liberal attack machine.' As with all such public falls from grace, the 'other side' can't oust someone. The final push always comes from within. Which is what happened early Friday when Michelle Malkin and other conservatives felt that -- whatever the reason -- the evidence of plagiarism was too strong to ignore."
-- Spot-On: "In the spleen against Domenech, home-schooling is invoked as a perjorative again and again and again. ... It's not Domenech -- he's pretext. It's home-schooling. And how they hate it. If you're a parent wedded to the antique idea that you might control your child's upbringing, look and know who will fight you on that."
-- Don Surber: "Hiring Ben Domenech was a joke. The Post needs to go in-house this time. I suggested Frank Ahrens [Note: Ahrens once worked with Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia, as did I.]. I am sure the Post has others. No right-wing bloggers. They blew it. Domenech was their man. The Post should not trust them for a long while.
-- Some bloggers see a potential impact for bloggers and campaign finance law.
Tapped: "I believe this episode with Domenech clearly shows why members of the press, for their own good, need to understand, support, and strengthen the distinction between journalism and online partisan activism."
Daily Kos: "This week revealed yet again that the best response to "bad speech" is more speech, and we don't need the Sheriff (in the form of the Federal Election Commission) to clean things up. We're doing just fine on our own."
-- Wizbang seized on the controversy as an opportunity to bash a new federal law against anonymous online speech: "What is interesting is that in the Domenech case the anonymity of the comment section at Eschaton and the hidden identities of diarists at Daily Kos made many of those who pursued him (often profanely and scurrilously) potential lawbreakers. ... Imagine the chaos in the blogosphere that would ensue if a federal prosecutor decided to look into those anonymous publishers."
Posted by | 02:13 PM
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» Thanks Ben from The Moderate Voice
Well, Red America is no more and plagiarism brought it down. That's right...Ben Domenech has resigned due to some heavy pressures from the left, the right, and probably his own conscience.
This looks bad for bloggers, right? Well, as the e... [Read More]
Tracked on March 24, 2006 05:01 PM
