Mad at Ben Domenech

I’m going to try and put into words how I feel about this whole Ben Domenech mess. Domenech, who was given the grand opportunity of blogging for the Washington Post.com, was discovered to have committed serial plagiarism. As fellow Red State founder Mike Krempasky writes:

If you, as many have done, dedicate thousands of man-hours to scrutinizing of his life’s work, you’ll find two things: First, you’ll find several instances of this behavior, some attributable to youth, and some not. Second, you’ll find an amazingly talented writer, a man of principle, and an earnest young activist seeking not to advance himself — though advance he did — but the things he believed in.

Domenech has apologized for this conduct and eventually I will forgive him, but not today. Today, I must survey the damage this has done, not for Domenech’s career, which has certainly taken a nosedive, but for others in the same position.

Don Surber gloats over Domenech’s demise:

Hiring Ben Domenech was a joke. The Post needs to go inhouse this time. I suggested Frank Ahrens. 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.

Surber even refers to Domenech’s home schooled education in a derogatory fashion, as if this had anything to do with what happened.

What Domenech has done is given media elitest cannon fodder to attack Conservative bloggers, home schoolers, and young people in journalism. He has made it that much harder for young Conservatives who want to write professionally to make it. When I read about Domenech getting the job at the Post, I was excited. I saw potential for myself and other bloggers to be able to do what we love for a wider audience. For a few years anyway, thanks to Domenech, its not going to happen. Domenech may have fallen in the mud, but we all got splashed.

Of course, one has to comment on the unfairness of it all and it is ultimately unfair. Despite the Jayson Blair scandal, Honolulu Star Bulletin Columnist Tim Ryan being fired for plagarism, along with the “inventive”stories of Stephen Glass, and Michael Finkel, and the media elite doesn’t claim that public schooled mainstream media reporters should be distrusted. Yet, one blogger in millions given a big gig will be used to taint those who have been honest and straight up from the get go.

One also has to say something about the attack machine that took out Domenech. While Domenech’s responsible for his actions, what we witnessed was an example of the politics of personal destruction in action. You want to know why good people don’t get involved in politics. Its because good people have made mistakes and they don’t feel like having their names dragged through the mud for the amusement of the world. Its been done on both sides, but by God, it has to stop because its destroying our civic life.

I hope that Mr. Domenech recovers. There are second acts in American politics and I hope and pray that his latter days will be better than his former days.

Domenech

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