Ignoring the First Rule of HolesBen Domenech
keeps digging.
Virtually every other alleged instance of plagiarism that I’ve seen comes from a single semester’s worth of pieces that were printed under my name at my college paper, The Flat Hat, when I was 17.
In one instance, I have been accused me of passing off P.J. O'Rourke's writing as my own in a column for the paper. But the truth is that I had met P.J. at a Republican event and asked his permission to do a college-specific version of his classic piece on partying. He granted permission, the piece was cleared with my editors at the paper, and it ran as inspired by O’Rourke’s original.
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.
But all these specifics are beside the point. Considering that all of this happened almost eight years ago, and that there are no files or notes that I've kept from that brief stint, it is simply my word against the liberal blogosphere on these examples. It becomes a matter of who you believe.Except that the
NRO movie review (which is specifically
cited by Howard Kurtz here) is from 2001. NRO
is already sufficiently convinced that Domenech plagiarized that article.
As the previous links on the matter mention, at least one of the pieces Ben Domenech is accused of having plagiarized was a movie review for National Review Online. A side-by-side comparison to another review of the same film speaks for itself. There is no excuse for plagiarism and we apologize to our readers and to Steve Murray of the Cox News Service from whose piece the language was lifted. With some evidence of possible problems with other pieces, we're also looking into other articles he wrote for NRO.I don't want to beat a guy while he's down; I'm actually quite disspirited by this revelation about Domenech. The liberal loons were going completely nuts over this when they had nothing on him; needless to say they're clinking their glasses now. I don't remember where I saw this, but somebody said it well: He handed them a sword and they ran him through.
Update:
Dodo David and
Aaron are on the same page.
And we're right, he's really not
addressing the charges.
Hat Tip:
Sensible Mom &
Riehl World ViewOkay, looks like the
message has been received. Unlike the liberal idiots who are probably toasting themselves tonight, I feel the taste of ashes in my mouth.
