Washington Post on Domenech: "We did plenty of background checks"

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/03/24/brady/index.html

Jim Brady, executive editor of Washingtonpost.com, told Salon Friday that Post editors had thoroughly vetted young right-wing blogger Ben Domenech before they hired him to write for the site. He said editors saw no "red flags" that Domenech was a plagiarist. Domenech resigned from the Post site Friday after bloggers discovered that he'd copied entire passages from publications, including Salon and Rolling Stone, while he was working for his college newspaper. After he graduated, he wrote articles for the National Review Online and New York Press that also contained plagiarized passages.

"We obviously did plenty of background checks" on Domenech, Brady said. He explained that Post editors read "basically everything he'd written" during the past few years and spoke to many people who had previously worked with Domenech -- "both people he referred us to and people we found on our own," Brady said. Plagiarism, though, is not an easy thing to spot, Brady suggested. "We did a lot of vetting but that's a difficult thing to catch someone on."

Brady said that Domenech had "not necessarily admitted to the fact that he did or didn't do it," and that the Post site -- which is managed separately from the print version of the Washington Post -- had not come to any conclusions on whether Domenech was guilty of plagiarism. "But certainly there was enough smoke there and not any good explanations to convince me otherwise," Brady said. He added that if Domenech had not offered to resign, the paper would have fired him. (Domenech did not respond to Salon e-mail inquiries for comment.)

In a post Friday on RedState.org, Domenech defended himself from the charges and blamed a college editor for inserting text into his stories. "My critics have also accused me of plagiarism in multiple movie reviews for the college paper. I once caught an editor at the paper inserting a line from The New Yorker (which I read) into my copy and protested. When that editor was promoted, I resigned. Before that, insertions had been routinely made in my copy, which I did not question. I did not even at that time read the publications from which I am now alleged to have lifted material. When these insertions were made, I assumed, like most disgruntled writers would, that they were unnecessary but legitimate editorial additions."

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. LOL. I didn't think it was very common for editors to ADD major sections.

[RamboLiberal]

14. Flat Head Editor at that time answers

<snip>

Steve Mencarini, editor of The Flat Hat from 1999 to 2000, said he supervised Domenech from fall of 1999 to March 2000. Mencarini refuted Domenech’s description of the events.

“I don’t remember any instance specifically where he said anything. I don’t even know who P.J. O’Rourke is. I don’t remember any instance where he said that or that was the case,” Mencarini said. The article in question, “Party guidelines for real bashes,” does not mention O’Rourke in either the online or print editions.

“I don’t remember any specific piece where any editor said, ‘yeah, you can plagiarize that,’” Mencarini said.

<snip>

Mencarini could not speak for the entire Flat Hat staff, but he said he did not insert any unattributed quotes himself and did not remember any staff members who did.

“I’m fairly confident with the staff that we had at the time, they would not enter anything into his writing,” Mencarini said. “I can’t think of any circumstances where anybody would have done that or that would have happened.” He said he did not remember any instances when Domenech complained about insertions into his article.

Domenech is just like his fearless leader and rest of the Brown Shirts - he keeps digging the hole deeper.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

16. Of course the editors didn't do this. What's amazing, in a way, is that

this mofo would actually try this angle at all, when he is so completely busted.

I mean, just SHUT THE FUCK UP! dude! Yeesh.

[northofdenali]

23. Of COURSE he'll try this angle, that angle or any angle

he can figure out to use - he's a neocon repuke, and they never take the blame for anything!

STFU is perfect, Mayberry! :pals:

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Perhaps Jim Brady, the executive editor of Washingtonpost.com

should resign and they should hire one of those hot young bloggers to do the job he can't.

[SoCalDem]

3. and yet it only took a few days for amateurs to search out the plagiarism

WAPO..lame searches

[Xeric]

4. Riiiiiiight, Ben

Wow, a right wing goombah who's a plagiarist AND a pathological liar. Imagine that.

And Mr. Brady, it took about 10 minutes for the bloggers to find out this guy was a fraud, and you with your big newpaper just couldn't figure out what was going on. Makes me wonder what else you might have missed. Like maybe all the lies that led up to the war? Your credibility is in negative numbers at this point.

[TexasLawyer]

11. LOL!!!

welcome to DU by the way!

[Gabi Hayes]

12. tell the TRuTH, baby! you hiri it

WApO now has the cred of sites like Newsmax, etal

they obviously did NOTHInG at all to check out this creep

they did even LESS during the war run up, as they were stenos for the junta

result: rampant, most likely irreversible FASCISM

other than that, life is sweet

schwing

[Beelzebud]

5. We did plenty of background checks. We checked with Bush, We checked with

Rove, we checked with every republican operative we could find!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. So did his editors at the National Review also insert plagiarized copy?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/24/AR2006032401206_pf.html

Daily Kos, a Web site edited by liberal activist Markos Moulitsas, posted a comparison of Domenech's National Review piece on the film "Final Fantasy" and a review by Steve Murray of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.



(From Murray's piece) "Translucent and glowing, they ooze up from the ground and float through solid walls, wriggling countless tentacles and snapping their jaws. They're known as the Phantoms, alien thingies that, for three decades, have been sucking the life out of the earthlings of 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.' "



(From Domenech's piece)"Translucent and glowing, they ooze up from the ground and float through solid walls, splaying their tentacles and snapping their jaws, dripping a discomfiting acidic ooze. They're known as the Phantoms, otherworldly beings who, for three decades, have been literally sucking the life out of the earthlings of the human."

Domenech said he thought his piece appeared first, but a database review found that Murray's review was published three days earlier.

Rule: When in a hole, STOP DIGGING. (i.e. accusing your editors of inserting plagiarized copy in YOUR piece when YOU have been busted RED HANDED.)

[KharmaTrain]

7. And How Long Did The First Plagarism Reports Surface?

IIRC, they were out there within hours of the WAPO hiring this yahoo. It didn't take long for a couple enterprising bloggers to google and voila...Uncle Ben's Converted Plagarism...in it's full glory.

But I suspect that Ben was done in by one of his own. Surely his ripping had been noticed along the way and someone who either had been burned or saw a chance to burn Ben got this thing into the open and just let the truth do the rest.

Now I just hope this sorrid episode doesn't make Box Turtle Ben into the next Jonah Goldberg...some self-annointed media pundit purely based on how the "evil lefties" went after him.

Now it's time for Brady to get the boot...and Howell with him.

[TahitiNut]

8. I'll bet the only "background checks" they did was who his daddy is.

Daddy's connected to the mob. :shrug:
I mean the Bushoilini mob, of course - I sure don't wish to impugn the more honorable people who commit crimes with higher integrity.

[TexasLawyer]

15. Maybe he was recommended by "Jeff Gannon"

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[TexasLawyer]

9. "Plagiarism, though, is not an easy thing to spot, "

Wha???!!? Has this person not heard of Google?

[July]

24. I was just about to post on that.

That's Grade A bullshit.

Editors at a major newspaper can't detect plagiarism? Please.

[rocktivity]

10. Brady must have read what I posted earlier today

wondering if perhaps Domenech had actually been "recommended" for the job by either someone from the RNC or the Bush White House! link

:headbang:
rocknation

[Gabi Hayes]

13. or dana Ilbank

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. I saw that effing piece of slime on Olberman's show. He is just as oily,

snarky, and detestable in his TV persona as he is in writing.

He is the "Mr. Blackwell" (the snarky guy who writes that Hollywood Worst Dressed List) of political reporting. Very little substance, very long on the snark.

[Gabi Hayes]

20. heh....Harry Shearer as Mr. Blackwell....Dada lives forever

ever see Jackie Rogers' $100 Million Jackpot Wad?

fits right in

you had a really good post on something earlier today, but the Alzheimer's is setting in....



note the nasty French pun at bottom:

''LHOOQ''

'Look' en englais becomes

quoi?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

21. I was a posting fool today, between basketball and this plagiarizing idiot

This mofo's story just has my dander up for all kind of reasons, but I think the biggest is that he HAD to keep running his yap and actually accuse his editors of doing the plagiarism!

Dude! You're B-U-S-T-E-D! You're through!

What part of that don't you understand? :shrug:

[Gabi Hayes]

22. what can you say about these creeps? this is almost EXACTLY

how they gained power through the beer halls about eighty years ago

[RamboLiberal]

18. Douchebag digging that hole deeper

<snip>

Mr. Domenech also said that he may have mixed up his notes with articles from other authors.

"Frankly, if I had been less of a sloppy writer," he said, "this wouldn't be a problem."

He explained the passage that appeared to be copied from Mr. O'Rourke's book by saying that Mr. O'Rourke gave him permission.

Contacted at his home in New Hampshire, Mr. O'Rourke said that he had never heard of Mr. Domenech and did not recall meeting him.

"I wouldn't want to swear in a court of law that I never met the guy, Mr. O'Rourke said of Mr. Domenech, "but I didn't give him permission to use my words under his byline, no."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/business/25post.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

19. I wonder if Gentle Ben is finally gonna figure out that he just needs to

STFU, quit while he's behind, and crawl into his hole of richly deserved obscurity?

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

25. the whole world knew he wasn't a plagiarist!