A former Bush administration aide has resigned from his new role as a blogger for the Washington Post after evidence emerged that much of his previous journalistic work had been the result of plagiarism.
Ben Domenech, 24, had been hired by the newspaper to write what he described as “a blog for the majority of Americans” – enraging some liberals who took it to mean the Post had accepted rightwing claims that its coverage is biased to the left and, therefore, in need of balancing.
But after only three days, six postings and a close examination by leftwing bloggers of Mr Domenech’s previous output, the Red America blog was suspended.
Duncan Black, an influential blogger who uses the pseudonym Atrios, typified the reactions of those who said the affair showed the pitfalls of accepting the conservative argument that the establishment media are inherently biased.
He wrote: “The outrage was over the fact that once again conservatives had succeeded in mau-mauing a mainstream media outlet into balancing reporters with conservatives.”
Is avoidance of ethics part of the job description for Bush aides?
Does it still surprise you that people who work for / support the Bush administration cannot tell the truth from lies?
Golf is a lot like politics.
Play the ball as it lies.
Play the course as you find it.
If you can’t do either, do what is fair.
It’s not just ethics problems. It’s
a the lack of fair play that ruins the game
for everybody. We’ll see where the chap
pops up next.
All politicians tend to be scumbags, be it right or left; power corrupts.
I guess I missed the press release stating that liberals have never been found to be guilty of plagiarism.
Golfer
He’ll end up at Talon News, doing what Jeff Ganon does, posing as a gay prostitute.
These guys mainly uncovered stuff from his college newspaper when he was 17. National Review then found some stuff later on in their site.
So if some liberal anywhere ever committed plagiarism that gives Repugs license to pagiarize at will forever? Do I sense a double standard? Are you perhaps trying to justify your flaws by pointing out everyone else’s flaws? I thought the Repugs were the party of “values” and “responsibility”. I guess the Repugs really stand for talking out of both sides of your mouth. Talk values while passing the buck, lying and taking bribes. That sounds about right.
Paging Joe Biden!
No Alex, it’s called being a “grown-up” and not making cheap insinuations that because of one example of a person in an administration who lacks ethics, the whole administration does. I don’t suppose that Eideard would have posted the question “Is avoidance of ethics part of the job description for NY Times journalists?” after it was found out that Jayson Blair was a fraud.
Mike, This administration’s ethical inyour view? You gotta share whatever it is you are smoking because it is good! This has to the most morally corrupt administration the the history of the US. How many times have they been caught in a lie? I have lost count.
Instead of blaming the messenger, maybe you should stop making excuses and rationalizations and start putting this administration’s feet to the fire. Are those “values” just for show or do they actually mean something? Are those values applied to everyone else or are your leaders supposed to live up to them too?
You’ll have some credibility and your opinions may be worth something when you start expecting your leaders to live up to the same standards that you claim to believe in. Till then, you are just full of shit!
Alex, not all people have ethics, just as not all people are lacking in them — even within the same organization. Because I recognize this, I wouldn’t use this report about one guy as an excuse to make a cheap political statement.
We could make this thread about 200 pages long if we put in the name of every person, left wing or right wing that used plagerism or was ethically challenged.
Let him without sin cast the first stone.
My take on this is the guys age, he’s right in the group that reseachers are finding that grew up with the internet(also my age group) and seem to have no problem with *borrowing* other peoples work. For high school papers on up to University work and beyond. And please don’t insult me or yourself by asking for every name of every person doing this. It is research that shows more than a few of the age group 14 to 28 are at some point doing it.
If you look at the publicised reports of people at newspapers, t.v., politics etc. that have been fingered plagerising others work, it shows that they usually go on to good money making positions after, there’s no real down side to being caught, other than a few weeks of bad publicity.
Last time I looked, Jayson Blair was making big bucks from his book and speaking tour and Joe Biden was still a well paid Senator.
Um, yes, the report in question is about one guy. I don’t care about unrelated things dealing with administration staff members. Like I said, not everybody is ethical, but there are still plenty of those who are.
But please, don’t let me deter you from marching on in your anti-Bush crusade. I don’t like a lot of the things his administration has done in the past 5 years, but I also don’t use every little incident as a reason for making cynical blanket statements about things as a whole.
Of course if you want to discuss scandals and conspiracy theories dealing with the POTUS… we still don’t know what really happened to Vince Foster. 8-D
Yeah, now that Dubya is in the White House we hear talk about “Let him without sin cast the first stone.” When Bill Clinton was in the White House you guys wouldn’t cut him a break, you wanted (want) him dead. Can you say “hypocrites?”
Ugh, In the digital age with google at your side plagerism is getting easier to catch so why even risk it.
Golfer: I love the comparitive speech you use. Lightens the mood a bit while still making a point.
Coming SOON: The Dvorak Cage Match Forum
I don’t follow how exactly Domenech was operating in a capacity for the Bush administration but I guess that is modern liberalism. I think that Alex would be smart to remember that we still don’t officially know exactly what documents former NSA head Sandy Berger was jamming into his pants and his socks from that National Archives. Of course this story about a plagiarizing writer is much worse.
If Sandy Berger committed a crime, put his ass in Jail. As long as you also prosecute all the people in the Bush adminsitration who have broken the law, starting with Dubya. We still don’t “know” who gave the authorization to leak Valery Plame’s name to the press to Scooter Libby. In case you don’t know, leaking a secret agent’s name is know as treason. I think I remember that treason is punishable by death. That sounds somewhat serious to me.
Scungilli, Show me where I claimed that this putz Domenech operated in any capacity for the Bush administration. I guess readin’ is another of your weaknesses besides logic and reasonin’.
Um, no. Treason is defined in the Constitution as:
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
Outing a covert agent may be damaging to our national intelligence gathering capability, but it certainly is not treason.
Makes you pine for Clinton’s relatively benign administration.
What I don’t get is the outrage at one little blow job and the lack of outrage over the gross malsfeance of President George W. Bush’s administration.
Mike,
Foster committed suicide. Technically that means he killed himself. There is no conspiracy except in the minds of the mentally unbalanced.
Scongilli
Berger put the documents into his briefcase. Even when he was charged, the prosecutor knew that these were not the only notes and in most cases not even the originals. Stuffing papers into his coat and pants was a Rush Limbaugh lie.
Mike
As Der Fuhrer reminds us, we are involved in the War on Terror. Therefore releasing a secret agents name sure sounds to me like helping the enemy. In my book, that is treason.
Aussie, you have to understand how Repugs minds work. If Clinton did it, it was wrong, immoral and it hurt America. If Dubya did it, it is wonderful, patriotic and a great example to our children. Clinton can be accused of any evil deed no matter how base. Dubya on the other hand is beyond any critizism. He is flawless and expressing any doubt about his acts or policies only exposes you as a dangerous terrorist who must be tortured until you admit your horrible deeds and hatred for everything America represents.
>>not making cheap insinuations that because of one example of a
>>person in an administration who lacks ethics, the whole
>>administration does.
Unfortunately, in this case, the whole administration does (lack ethics). For a regime that got into power on a “values”-based platform, I’ve gotta say that I’ve never seen any group of people with less ethical foundation than Dumbya’s coven of evil-doers. Sheesh.
“Ugh, In the digital age with google at your side plagerism is getting easier to catch so why even risk it.”
I thought that exact thing… Especially if you’re a political blogger and you know that the other side is going to watch you like a hawk.
releasing the real name of a CIA operative is a Federal crime. Not treason. Just your run of the mill heavy duty felony.
The arrows are starting to point towards Richard Armitage, number 2 at the state department at the time. A Cheny boy I believe, but might be wrong about that.
Mr. Fusion….I read an article in the Washington Post that Berger really did take papers out in his socks and jacket. If Rush made that up he knows he would be sued for all of his Vicadin. Then he would be in a world of hurt (no pun intended) 🙂
The truth of all these matters lies somewhere in the big vast middle ground between the loony left and the rightious(sarcasm here) right.
Changing subjects…..did you see where the FEC announced today that bloggers, and political writers and such on the internet will not be regulated under the McCain/Fiengold Act, only the people who put their paid ads up on the sites will have to declare where the money came from and who paid it.
Joshua
I agree with your definition that this is codified as a Federal Statute instead of the definition of treason in the Constitution. The generic term of treason though is a lot looser, and covers any act or omission that will help the enemy during a time of war. In fact, the Administration called the NYT story about the NSA’s illegal wiretapping a treasonous act. So if reporting the truth about a criminal act the government does, I assume releasing the name of a CIA secret agent is too.
I had heard the same before, but the story attributed it to Rush Limbaugh. Berger claimed, plausibly, that because they were the notes he had made at the time he was National Security Director. He got them confused with the notes he was making at the time.
Sue Limbaugh? Great idea. Maybe some time is the local lockup will help his Oxycodone and Hydrocodone cravings. He might not sit down for awhile, but that is a different story.
Just shine a black light on the papers to see if Berger had them in his pants.