Ben Domenech

Ben Domenech (born December 31, 1981) is an American conservative writer, blogger and television commentator. He is the founder and the publisher of The Federalist, host of The Federalist Radio Hour, and writes The Transom, a daily subscription newsletter for political insiders. He also co-founded the RedState group blog.
He is the former managing editor for health care policy at The Heartland Institute and former editor-in-chief of The City. He created and hosted a daily free market podcast, Coffee and Markets, until 2014. In 2006, Domenech was hired as a blogger by The Washington Post, and resigned three days later after multiple instances of plagiarism came to light.

Domenech's career in punditry began as a teenager when he began a column, Any Given Sunday, for National Review Online (NRO), in addition to his personal blog.

The NRO column recapped political talk shows on television. "If there was a Top 10 list of young Loudoun County people to watch, he'd be on it," a Washington Post reporter wrote in a Loudoun County regional section of the paper. "Domenech is a sharp writer with an obvious command of his national politics beat — especially considering that this is the first year he is eligible to vote".

He attended the College of William and Mary between 1999 and 2002. After receiving a job offer from the US Department of Health and Human Services, he left William and Mary before his senior year. Domenech was the youngest political appointee of the George W. Bush administration. He worked as a speechwriter for Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

He worked as contributing editor for National Review Online; two years as the chief speechwriter for Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX); and an editor at Regnery Publishing, where he worked on books by Michelle Malkin, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Hugh Hewitt.

In March 2006, Domenech was named as a blogger for The Washington Post, where he would write from the conservative point of view. But only three days after his appointment, on March 21, 2006, Domenech resigned his position, when evidence surfaced that he had earlier plagiarized work that had originally appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, the National Review, and other publications. The Post said it did not know about his plagiarism when the newspaper hired him. Jim Brady, the-then executive editor of Washingtonpost.com, said he would have fired Domenech had he not first offered to quit, because the allegations of plagiarism made it necessary to "sever the relationship."

During the 2008 election, Domenech wrote numerous columns for Human Events and for The Washington Times. During the 2012 election, Domenech commented extensively on social and economic issues related to Occupy Wall Street for the Heritage Foundation.

He took part in the American Enterprise Institute's roundtable "Fusion or Fissures" regarding the future of American Conservatism. After Mitt Romney's failed campaign in the 2012 presidential election, Domenech was called upon to discuss the Republican Party's failure to breach the "Digital Divide" for Commentary as well as the Heritage Foundation.

As the managing editor of healthcare policy at the Heartland Institute, Domenech has had the opportunity to contribute his voice to debates on the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein responded, prompting a public debate between Domenech and Klein.

Domenech continues to post on RedState and has a personal blog, "this is an adventure".

Domenech was hired by the Washington Post's online arm to write a blog providing "a daily mix of commentary, analysis and cultural criticism". Media Matters for America criticized the choice, claiming that "[t]here [were], however, no progressive bloggers -- and no one left of center with the credentials of a political operative -- on washingtonpost.com to provide balance to Domenech." Instapundit founder Glenn Reynolds told the New York Times that Domenech's appointment attracted anger "because he was a conservative and he was given real estate at The Washington Post" and this spurred bloggers to find "something they could use to get rid of him."

Red America launched on March 21, 2006, but Domenech resigned three days later after only six posts, after other bloggers posted evidence that Domenech had plagiarized work from the Washington Post, The New Yorker, humorist P. J. O'Rourke, and several other writers. O'Rourke denied Domenech's claim that the humorist had granted permission to use his words, adding that he could not recall ever meeting the college student. Editors for Domenech's college newspaper, The Flat Hat, denied allegations by Domenech that one instance of plagiarism was because the editors had "inserted a passage from The New Yorker in an article without his knowledge," saying that "Mr. Domenech's actions, if true, [were] deeply offensive." On March 24, 2006, the editors of National Review confirmed on its blog The Corner that Domenech appeared to have plagiarized for at least one article he had written for that publication. Washington Post online editor Jim Brady announced Domenech's resignation saying "[a]n investigation into these allegations [of plagiarism] was ongoing, and in the interim, Domenech has resigned, effective immediately."

After initially denying the plagiarism allegations, Domenech apologized, writing in a RedState post entitled "Contrition," that "[t]here is no excuse for this.... I hope that nothing I've done as a teenager or in my professional life will reflect badly on the movement and principles I believe in."

More recently, Domenech was involved in a journalism scandal that resulted in the removal of his work from The Washington Examiner and The Huffington Post when it was disclosed that Domenech received $36,000 from Joshua Trevino, a conservative pundit and lobbyist, to write favorable opinion pieces about the government of Malaysia without disclosing the relationship. The payments came to light when Trevino registered as a foreign agent of the Malaysian government.

After disclosure of the payments, The Washington Examiner and The San Francisco Examiner, removed Domenech's post from their websites and replaced it with an editors' note saying that "the author of this item presented content for which, unbeknownst to us, and in violation of our standards, had received payment from a third party mentioned therein — a payment which he also failed to disclose." The Washington Examiner owned The San Francisco Examiner at the time and content was shared.

In September 2013, Domenech launched a web magazine called The Federalist, covering politics, policy, and culture.