Ben Domenech is a conservative American writer, media personality, plagiarist, and anti-transgender activist. Domenech co-founded RedState and The Federalist and has written for other anti-trans publications, including Washington Times, Human Events, Reason, American Conservative, and The Washington Post.
Background
Benjamin “Ben” Domenech was born on January 1, 1982 in Jackson, Mississippi and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. As a teenager, Domenech wrote for National Review Online and other conservative publications. Domenech attended the College of William & Mary from 1999 to 2002 but left before completing a degree to work in government.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Domenech was sworn in as the youngest political appointee of President George W. Bush. Domenech served as a speechwriter for Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and later for U.S. Senator John Cornyn during the Medicare Part D debate. Domenech was an editor at Regnery Publishing and a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute.
Domenech was a founding board member of the RedState blog in 2004. In March 2006, Domenech was briefly hired as a blogger by The Washington Post to write a conservative blog titled Red America. Domenech resigned three days after starting amid plagiarism allegations. Domenech reportedly plagiarized work starting in college, including work in The Washington Post, The New Yorker, National Review, and from writes P. J. O’Rourke, Stephanie Zacharek, and Mary Elizabeth Williams, among others. The National Review subsequently confirmed Domenech had published plagiarized work on their site. After initially mounting a self-defense, Domenech wrote: “I want to apologize to National Review Online, my friends and colleagues here at RedState, and to any others that have been affected over the past few days. I also want to apologize to my previous editors and writers whose work I used inappropriately and without attribution. There is no excuse for this – nor is there an excuse for any obfuscation in my earlier statement.”
In 2013, Domenech co-founded the conservative online magazine The Federalist, serving as its publisher and hosting The Federalist Radio Hour starting in 2015. Domenech also created and hosted the podcast Coffee & Markets from 2009 until 2014. Domenech joined Fox News as a commentator in 2021, hosting The Big Ben Show (also known as The Ben Domenech Podcast). In May 2022, Domenech was named Editor at Large of The Spectator World.
In 2017, Domenech married Meghan McCain, child of Republican Senator John McCain. They have three children, born in 2020, 2023, and 2026.
Anti-trans activism
Domenech has frequently discussed transgender rights policies.
The Federalist Radio Hour has had many anti-trans guests, including Ryan T. Anderson, Nellie Bowles, Vernadette Broyles, Ross Douthat, Riley Gaines, Miriam Grossman, Mary Harrington, Katie Herzog, Walt Heyer, Michael Knowles, Greg Lukianoff, Brendan O’Neill, Louise Perry, Dave Rubin, Christopher Rufo, Jennifer Sey, Ben Shapiro, Michael Shellenberger, Abigail Shrier, Lionel Shriver, Aaron Sibarium, Jesse Singal, and Bari Weiss.
References
Johnson, Ted (February 3, 2021). Fox News Signs Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech as a Contributor. Deadline https://deadline.com/2021/02/fox-news-ben-domenech-1234686824/
McLaughlin, Aidan (July 6, 2017). TBT: Remember When Federalist’s Ben Domenech Was Ousted From WaPo For Plagiarism. Mediaite https://www.mediaite.com/online/tbt-remember-when-federalists-ben-domenech-was-kicked-out-of-wapo-for-plagiarism/
Brinker, Luke (April 12, 2014). Introducing The Federalist, A New Web Magazine For Anti-LGBT Conservatives. Media Matters for America https://www.mediamatters.org/federalist/introducing-federalist-new-web-magazine-anti-lgbt-conservatives
Bosman, Julie (March 25, 2006). Washington Post Blogger Quits After Plagiarism Accusations. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/business/washington-post-blogger-quits-after-plagiarism-accusations.html
Brady, Jim (March 24, 2006). Ben Domenech Resigns. Washington Post https://web.archive.org/web/20260000000000*/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/redamerica/2006/03/ben_domenech_resigns.html [archive]
Kurtz, Howard (March 24, 2006). Post.com Blogger Quits Amid Furor. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2006/03/25/postcom-blogger-quits-amid-furor/bae68d1b-8348-4ccf-ac7a-ebe4d7969374/
The Editors (March 24, 2006). A Message to Our Readers. National Review https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/message-our-readers-editors/
“FleetAdmiralJ” (March 24, 2006). Comprehensive (to date) Domenech plagiarism diary. Daily Kos https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2006/3/23/196527/-
Staff report (May 6, 2000). An Early Eye for Political Punditry. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/05/07/an-early-eye-for-political-punditry/d2950d4f-ee06-4075-bd7e-4e7ba12f4bd6/
Selected writing by Domenech
Domenech, Ben (March 24, 2006). Contrition. RedState http://www.redstate.com/story/2006/3/24/231559/931 [archive]
Media
The Ben Domenech Podcast with Ben Domenech and Jeannette Cooper (August 4, 2022), Jeannette Cooper & The Psychology Of Transgenderism. https://radio.foxnews.com/2022/08/04/jeannette-cooper-the-psychology-of-transgenderism/
Resources
Ben Domenech (bendomenech.com) [archive]
- Blog
- bendomenech.com/blog [archive]
SourceWatch (sourcewatch.org)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Fox News (foxnews.com)
- The Big Ben Show
- radio.foxnews.com/podcast/the-big-ben-show
Washington Post (washingtonpost.com)
- Red America
- blog.washingtonpost.com/redamerica [archive]
Muck Rack (muckrack.com)