WP: Some Readers See Red Over Post.com's New Blogger

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301991_pf.html

The Washington Post Co.'s Web operation has touched off an online furor by hiring as a blogger a 24-year-old former Bush administration aide who co-founded a conservative site and recently referred to Coretta Scott King as a "communist."

Ben Domenech, an editor at the conservative Regnery Publishing, said he regrets the King reference, which he insists was tongue-in-cheek, and that the reaction to his new "Red America" blog is "a little meaner" than he expected.

More than 1,000 people and a Democratic member of Congress have sent the newspaper letters of complaint. The decision to hire Domenech was made by Washingtonpost.com, an Arlington-based division that works with the newspaper but is editorially independent.

<snip>

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.

[Beetwasher]

1. He's A SERIAL PLAGIARIST!!!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/24/13724/1544

LOL!!! Typical Repub: "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."

It was the editor!!! He added plagiarized content to my articles!!! I didn't do it!!!

[BR_Parkway]

6. It's the new Repug meme - he manages to blame the "media" for

his failings, just like Shrub and Rummy. It wasn't me, it was my damn librul editor!

[Wickerman]

2. Yep, a real Repuglican

"had complained about a college editor improperly adding language..."

Imagine that, he didn't do it. How original.

[maxrandb]

21. He hit the "Trifecta of Blame"

Liberals, the media, and a college professor. That's got to make Sean Insanity proud.

[Dora]

3. What's happening to him should happen to all up-and-comers...

I think this should be a warning to ALL young political wannabes and up-and-comers...

MIND YOUR P'S AND Q'S

Yo, Domenech - you deserve every second of grief that you get over this. You're 24 years old, you've been taught since kindergarten that stealing is wrong, cheating isn't fair, and that cheaters never prosper. You have no way to explain yourself other than that you're a lazy, incurious, power-hungry punk who thought that "Nobody will ever know."

Wake up, kid. Do your own damn work.

[splat]

4. Okay, let's track down that "college editor" he blames n/t

[moobu2]

5. "editor at the conservative Regnery Publishing"

Regnery Publishing is owned by William Regnery II, who publishes white-supremacist KKK trash and great authors (cough, cough) such as Ann Coulter and G. Gordon Liddy. They also published the Swift Boat smear on John Kerry…WoPo has sunk all the way to the bottom.

Southern Poverty Law Center has a page on it’s Intelligence Report on William Regnery II.

William Regnery II, an heir to the Regnery publishing fortune who's a prime mover and shaker in white nationalism publishing, is moving into a new line of business: match-making for "heterosexual whites of Christian cultural heritage."
<snip>
William II has made his mark as a major fundraiser in radical right circles as the founder of the Charles Martel Society in 2001. The society publishes The Occidental Quarterly, an academic-looking journal filled with articles by white-supremacist luminaries such as Sam Francis, editor for the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens and Wayne Lutton of the hate group The Social Contract Press.

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=479

[UpInArms]

9. Tom Phillips - Phillips Publishing - Regnery Press

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/10/01/novak/print.html

October 1, 2004 | Conservative commentator Robert Novak, who has energetically promoted the bestselling book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," published an unusual addendum to his syndicated column on Sept. 6. It read: "In response to queries: My son, Alex Novak, is director of marketing for Regnery Publishing Inc., publisher of 'Unfit for Command.' He is 36 and has been employed at Regnery for six years, since receiving his MBA from the University of Maryland. He has had no connection with my reporting about 'Unfit for Command,' a bestselling book dealing with Kerry's war record whose news value is obvious. I plan to continue to pursue this story as developments warrant."

But Novak's son's employment at Regnery, revealed by the New York Times on Aug. 30, isn't Novak's only tie to the Washington publisher of conservative polemics. Novak also has a long-standing professional and personal relationship that he did not reveal -- with Regnery's owner, newsletter magnate Tom Phillips. Phillips owns Eagle Publishing, whose subsidiaries include Regnery; Human Events, a 60-year-old conservative newsweekly; and the Evans-Novak Political Report, Novak's subscription-based newsletter ($297 a year). In addition, Novak is an unpaid member of the board of Phillips' private foundation, the Phillips Foundation, which awards journalism fellowships to young conservatives.

At Morton's Steakhouse in downtown Washington on Sept. 21, Robert and Alex Novak joined Phillips and several dozen other cogs in the right-wing propaganda machine to celebrate the success of "Unfit for Command," which boasts 850,000 copies in print and sits at No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list. ("Unfit" was knocked from the top spot recently by Kitty Kelley's exposé "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty." )

Most of the guests at the party -- including the two generations of Novaks -- have been promoters of the negative narrative of Kerry's military past that culminated in a ringing cash register for Regnery.

The guests of honor were the authors of "Unfit," former Nixon operative John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi, who are driving forces behind the discredited Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group, with millions of dollars from Republican Party donors closely linked to Bush political advisor Karl Rove, ran a barrage of television ads attacking Kerry's war record in August and September -- which many analysts believe has helped tilt the race recently in Bush's favor.

...more...

http://www.prospect.org/print/V11/5/confessore-n.html

Welcome to the world of Regnery Publishing--lifestyle press for conservatives, preferred printer of presidential hopefuls, and venerable publisher of books for the culture wars. Call it--gracelessly but more accurately--a medium-sized, loosely linked network of conservative types, with few degrees of separation and similar political aims. Just don't call it a conspiracy.

Regnery Publishing's right-leaning corporate philosophy actually goes back to 1947, when the late Henry Regnery, Sr., set out to publish "good books," as he wrote in the company's first catalogue, "wherever we find them." Works by Regnery's friends among the nascent conservative intelligentsia soon followed, including Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind, William F. Buckley, Jr.'s God and Man at Yale, Whittaker Chambers's Witness, and Barry Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. Henry Regnery's son, Alfred Regnery, who took over in 1986 and moved the company to Washington, D.C., has likewise been both a friend to and publisher of conservative authors. After stints in law school (where he roomed with American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene) and as college director of Young Americans for Freedom, Alfred Regnery was appointed head of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention by Ronald Reagan in 1983. While there, as reported by Murray Waas in The New Republic, he helped run Edwin Meese's ill-fated President's Commission on Pornography; disbursed generous grants to Jerry Falwell's Liberty College, Meese pal George Nicholson, and professional antifeminist Phyllis Schlafly; authored, with then-Assistant Secretary of Education Gary Bauer, a much-ridiculed report called "Chaos in the Public Schools"; and in general cultivated an updated version of his father's network of friends.

But by the time Alfred Regnery took over the family business, the firm had slipped into semi-dormancy. Regnery Publishing's 1993 purchase by newsletter magnate Tom Phillips woke it up. Phillips, one of the Republican National Committee's "Team 100" and a board member of the Claremont Institute, lavished both money and attention on his new acquisition. Leaving Alfred Regnery at the helm, Phillips folded the company into his Eagle Publishing division, an overtly political enterprise with a distinguished stable of conservative media: Human Events, a 56-year-old,ultra-right weekly newspaper; the Evans-Novak Political Report; the 75,000-member Conservative Book Club (founded in 1964 as "America was walking down Lyndon Johnson's path to a socialist 'Great Society'"); and a similar operation called the Christian Family Book Club. But perhaps most significant--given the central role direct mail has played in the conservative resurgence of recent decades--is Eagle's list brokerage operation, which rents out Eagle's own customer lists and those of organizations like Newt Gingrich's GOPAC, Empower America, the Western Journalism Center, and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, not to mention Pat Buchanan's American Cause and the Steve Forbes for President campaign.

[underpants]

14. ONE degree of seperation between the RNC and the KKK

right now????

WOW

Printing out for further reading. Daming very very damning. I didn't know this about Regnery Publishing .

[UpInArms]

16. thanks for taking the time to read one of my research project posts

underpants!

I ran into Tom Phillips' background a couple of months ago and was astounded at the depth and breadth of the scope of Regnery also.

Enjoy your reading!

:toast:

[rocktivity]

7. Since WaPo.com clearly didn't do even the most cursory background check

I have to wonder if bringing in a right-wing blogger was really their idea.

:headbang:
rocknation

[David__77]

8. I see this as no slander against Coretta Scott King, only an intended one.

Who cares if she or her husband were perhaps Communist Party associates or members? A large number of the most important civil rights leaders were. That doesn't tarnish the civil rights movement, but brings credit to the communists for having the fortitude to do the right thing when liberals would not.

[Rose Siding]

10. He also plagerized in a New Republic piece

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/3/23/181857/404/136#c136

I think that was after he left school.

That college paper has a new editorial about him:

Late Thursday evening, several widely-read internet weblogs reported that a former College student plagiarized at least two articles while he worked as a writer for The Flat Hat. According to the websites Daily Kos and Atrios, phrases and full sentances of these articles were similar, and in some cases identical, to those of other authors. Ben Domenech, a student who enrolled in the College in 1999, is currently a blogger with Washingtonpost.com. While Domenech deserves the benefit of the doubt until all of the facts are known, if true, his actions would be deeply offensive to us as journalists and as students.

http://flathat.wm.edu/story.php?issue=2006-03-24&type=1&aid=1

[young_at_heart]

11. If Katharine Graham was still around I bet this wouldn't exist

After her death the Post became Republican-friendly.

[RamboLiberal]

12. E&P: His Old College Paper Troubled by Plagiarism Charges Against 'Wash Po

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002236016

While the Washingtonpost.com continues to defend its latest blog hire--conservative Ben Domenech--despite several examples of apparent plagiarism in his writings, his old college paper is expressing strong concern.

Most of the plagiarism examples that have surfaced so far come from his days at the College of William & Mary's weekly student newspaper The Flat Hat.

Today, on its Web site, The Flat Hat posted a lengthy staff editorial, titled "Poison of plagiarism." It opens:

"Late Thursday evening, several widely-read internet weblogs reported that a former College student plagiarized at least two articles while he worked as a writer for The Flat Hat. According to the websites Daily Kos and Atrios, phrases and full sentances of these articles were similar, and in some cases identical, to those of other authors. Ben Domenech, a student who enrolled in the College in 1999, is currently a blogger with Washingtonpost.com. While Domenech deserves the benefit of the doubt until all of the facts are known, if true, his actions would be deeply offensive to us as journalists and as students.

http://flathat.wm.edu/story.php?issue=2006-03-24&type=1&aid=1

Staff Editorial: Poison of plagiarism

Late Thursday evening, several widely-read internet weblogs reported that a former College student plagiarized at least two articles while he worked as a writer for The Flat Hat. According to the websites Daily Kos and Atrios, phrases and full sentances of these articles were similar, and in some cases identical, to those of other authors. Ben Domenech, a student who enrolled in the College in 1999, is currently a blogger with Washingtonpost.com. While Domenech deserves the benefit of the doubt until all of the facts are known, if true, his actions would be deeply offensive to us as journalists and as students.

No one presently involved with the paper has ever worked with Domenech. We are an entirely student-run newspaper with a completely new staff every four years. However, as the current stewards of our campus newspaper, we feel this is an opportunity to comment on plagiarism’s corrosive effect on The Flat Hat, the College and individual reputations.

As a newsaper, we necessarily place a great amount of trust in our writers, as the number and variety of potential sources make it impossible for us to catch every instance of plagiarism. If a copied article that has fallen through the cracks comes to our attention, we strive to respond in a way that is fair to the writer and forthcoming to our readers. The Flat Hat has spent over 95 years building an honest relationship with you, the reader. We would never allow one writer to ruin our good name.

The College’s honor code, the oldest in the country, is one of our most cherished traditions. It ensures our community of trust, allowing us to enjoy un-proctored exams and the ability to leave our personal belongings without fear of theft. It creates an environment where every student succeeds or fails on his or her own merit. It increases the value of every College diploma by guaranteeing the integrity of our academic environment. The College’s reputation relies upon its honor just as much as it does its academic excellence. As prospective students, we were drawn by the promise of becoming a part of this proud tradition. We have a responsibility to uphold this tradition, both during and after our time here. We aim to live by the honor code as individuals and as a publication. This oath, taken by every freshman who walks through the doors of the Wren Building, is essential to who we are. Plagiarism, the theft of ideas, deeply undermines this trust.

<snip>

Editorial Board:

Joshua Pinkerton, Editor-in-Chief
Ashley Baird, Managing Editor -- Max Fisher, Executive Editor
Per Hoel, Business Manager -- Andy Zahn, News Editor
Chase Johnson, Variety Editor -- Louis Malick, Sports Editor
Alice Hahn, Reviews Editor -- Natalie Ronollo, Opinions Editor

Hah, The Flat Head journalists have more integrity than the Repub brown-nosing WP.

[Lance_Boyle]

13. William and Mary concerned at being exposed

for the fetid breeding ground of rabid righties that it has been for many, many years. It's just Liberty U. with a different flavor of sanctimony.

[grasswire]

15. really?

What a shame. Such a beautiful campus. A friend just moved to Wmsburg and was considering the school for his kids. Oops. It won't happen if it's full of wingnuts.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

18. wait wasn't Jon Stewart from W&M?

...

[Quiet_Dem_Mom]

17. Sam Seder (subst host for Franken) just said he turned in his resignation.

Sam didn't cite his news source, tho.

[indy_azcat]

19. he just resigned

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/washpostblog /

:bounce:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=743932&mesg_id=743932

[Orion The Hunter]

20. Not soon enough...

..nice that folks on the Internet did Jim Brady's job of background checking this yahoo and his "writing" credentials.

[PhuLoi]

22. Domenech can suck it.*

*a minor plagarism of his quote re Gore. I shall now resign.

[0007]

23. Ouch!