Red America came and went in less than a week.
Washingtonpost.com hired GOP operative Ben Domenech, a 24-year-old wonder boy with virtually no journalism background, to add an explicitly conservative voice to its stable of blogs. Domenech made his first post Monday and immediately came under fire from liberal bloggers, outraged that the Post would create a Red America blog but not one for Blue America.But that's not what ended Domenech's short-lived stint in the mainstream media. (By the way, I loved how he used his gig in the MSM to attack the MSM for ignoring conservatives.) It turns out there were strong indications that he was a serial plagiarizer. He resigned today, and Post officials said he would have been fired had he not resigned.
It just happens that former Pioneer Press editor Deborah Howell, now the Post's ombudsman, was in our newsroom today for a Q&A session on journalism topics. I asked her about the Domenech affair.
Her reply: "I can't defend it. It's a f.....n' disaster."
Jim,
I bet yesterday was one of those days where the burnt, acidy taste of Starbucks coffee is working hard on the organs. Bathroom twice, three times and it's not a number one. Your cell phone is now your enemy and the e-mail not much better. Because, you hitched your and the Washington Post's wagon to a bunch of racists and chickenhawks. I know being exceutive editor of Washington Post.com is hard work, but you seem to like to make it harder
The e-mails started up yet? Seems they should be coming. People are pissed at you. You do know that once upon a time the Post was seen as the savior of American democracy. Now, you're just a tool for people who shouldn't be hired to get coffee for the help desk, much less have a voice attached to the Post. You're supposed to be a steward of that name and tradition, even if everyone else fails in it.
When I was at NYU, I was taught by Timesmen, which is what they called themselves. They were mostly old school New York Times reporters, like Frank Prial, but they respected themselves and their profession and taught us that as well. Young Ben would have flunked out of Reporting I and booted from the program. And it wouldn't have been a close call.
But at least you can drink coffee from your desk today. At least you can smile at the secretaries and have your ID card. Wonder why Deb Howell tossed you under that bus, after you defended her so vigorously? Maybe she's wondering how a plagiarist slipped in the door. It's a sore subject at the Post, you know, with Janet Cooke and all that. Well, at least you still have your job.
Let me quote one of my readers, since he summed up your dilemma:
Brady made all the right technological decisions. The chats, the blogs, the Technorati links. He understands, pretty much, what the Guardian understands: that the online face of a paper with a relatively small print circulation is the face it presents to the world. Compare that to the idiocy which is Times Select.But Brady's fuckups have been big ones, and they're about misunderstanding the social climate around the technology. As for Lil' Debbie, as much as she's clueless about the tech and the climate, she knows a plagiarizing no-talent hack when she sees one.
----pseudonymous in nc
What did you think? We didn't read Red State? That their reputation wouldn't have contaminated the Post? Did you ask any questions?
I was the person who read Ben Domenech and thought he was a racist. The reason was simple: over repeated posts, he showed a marked anti-black hostility. I was quickly made aware that he was half-Puerto Rican, as if his ethnicity prevented racism. The first history course I took in college was Latin American History. The professor quickly explained that in Latin America racism was reversed. In the US, any black blood makes you black, well, in Latin America, any white blood makes you White, the whiter the better.
But what set me off was his calling Coretta Scott King a communist. Since he never honestly explained how he came by that in his tepid apology, Jim, let me quickly explain. Martin Luther King was called a communist because he took classes at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. Many of the local segregationists called any supporter of the school a communist, even Eleanor Roosevelt
How would a 24 year old know that? There are only two places you can learn that, in King biographies and hard right web sites.
Imagine your job security when it was discovered that another of Red State's founders was behind the new Georgia Voter ID bill, which many regard as a new Poll tax? Is it me, or is DC and surrounding areas filled with black people? Think they like poll taxes and voter suppression?
Sometimes, bad things are good for people, missing that flight and then it crashes, not going to that party and then everyone is arrested, blowing off that girl and then finding out her boyfriend is a violent psycho. Ben's quick rise and fall is one of those things.
Why? Oh let's play pretend for a minute.
DC black radio:
Host: "In other news, the Washington Post has hired a "blogger" for a new column called Red America"
Co-Host: Red America? You mean red neck America
Host: Something like that. The guy's name is Ben Domenech. Seems he writes for something called Red State.
Co-Host: Red State, huh?
Host: Yeah. They didn't like the King funeral. Seems this guy called Mrs. King a communist.
Co-Host: What?
Host: Yeah, he said "the president was honoring a communist"
Co-Host: What? And he writes for the Washington Post?
Host: Yeah.
Co-Host: So we need to find out who his boss is and ask why he hired him.
Jim, you see where this is going. Flooded switchboards, threats to pull car ads, questions from politicians. A festival of ugly, all with your name on it. And for what? People who hate you, will continue to hate you and think you are anti-American. You risked your job for ungrateful snots who sneered at you.. Do you think they like you any more today?
And what's this about hiring another conservative? Jim, unless you can pull one internally or from another publication, you're asking for trouble. Because most of the large Conservative sites share a lot in common with Red State, and that's not good. The next one, the one after, or their partners, will set off the fire next time and you'll be looking at the world of online consulting for your next jo, paying with your job for their idiocy. Liberal bloggers are hardly your enemies, even though you attacked us and then unleashed Howie Kurtz . But in the end, who was right?
Well, I think I'd switch to tea and seltzer if I were you. The coffee isn't going to help you now. Just more acid for that churning gut, which must start when you get your e-mail or feel that phone vibrate.. Think happy thoughts. You'll need to.
Your friend,
Steve
Steve Gilliard and his partner Jen Onymous write for The News Blog, based in New York