Brendan Nyhan

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  • Disturbing Duke lacrosse rape case

    [Update 2/4/11: This post was written immediately after the allegations emerged and does not reflect my views on the case. I raised questions early about inconsistencies in the accuser’s account and became a vocal critic of Mike Nifong’s prosecution. The charges were later dropped and Nifong was eventually disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct.] Here in Durham,

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  • What is Cass Sunstein talking about?

    I respect Cass Sunstein a great deal, but this statement by the Chicago law prof is just objectively wrong: “The Clinton impeachment was plainly unconstitutional, and a Bush impeachment would be nearly as bad,” said Cass R. Sunstein, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. “There is a very good argument that

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  • Conservatives: Media wants US to fail in Iraq

    As part of an offensive against media coverage in Iraq, several conservative commentators are claiming that the media is trying to undermine the US war effort, as Media Matters documents: O’Reilly, in turn, expressed his belief that “there is a segment of the media trying to undermine the policy in Iraq for their own ideological

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  • O’Rourke contradicts Domenech

    One more Domenech claim goes out the window in today’s New York Times: [Domenech] explained the passage that appeared to be copied from Mr. O’Rourke’s book by saying that Mr. O’Rourke gave him permission. Contacted at his home in New Hampshire, Mr. O’Rourke said that he had never heard of Mr. Domenech and did not

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  • The end of the Domenech controversy

    He’s toast: In the past 24 hours, we learned of allegations that Ben Domenech plagiarized material that appeared under his byline in various publications prior to washingtonpost.com contracting with him to write a blog that launched Tuesday. An investigation into these allegations was ongoing, and in the interim, Domenech has resigned, effective immediately. When we

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  • Howard Kurtz on Domenech controversy

    Howard Kurtz covers the Domenech controversy today in the Washington Post: Late yesterday, the liberal Web sites Daily Kos and Atrios posted examples of what appeared to be instances of plagiarism from Domenech’s writing at the William & Mary student paper. Three sentences of a 1999 Domenech review of a Martin Scorsese film were identical

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  • Media Matters on Domenech

    Media Matters, like Joe Conason, is on the Domenech story, including the phony AP quote: [W]ith each hour bringing new evidence of Domenech’s racially charged rhetoric and homophobic bigotry, the time has come for the Post to end its ill-conceived relationship with Domenech. Examples of Domenech’s views include: In a February 7 post on RedState,

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  • Conason on Domenech’s phony quote

    Salon’s Joe Conason has picked up the story of newly-hired WashingtonPost.com bloger Ben Domenech and the false quotation I exposed on Domenech’s personal blog back in 2002: [B]y Thursday bloggers had more than ideological reasons to oppose the Post’s move, as

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  • GOP pushes impeachment hype

    The Republican Party has apparently signed on to the desperation tactic of claiming Democrats will impeach President Bush if they take back the House in 2006. This tactic, which I first documented in a column from Paul Weyrich, has gained increasing attention in recent weeks as President Bush’s approval ratings decline into the 30s. Today,

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  • Pointless government secrecy in NC

    One of my fellow graduate students pointed me to a hilarious/disturbing local story about bizarre NC state government secrecy practices: Here are some words the N.C. Department of Labor thinks the public shouldn’t see: tomatoes, landlord, Mexicans, workers. The department recently released to News & Observer staff writer Kristin Collins its files on Ag-Mart, the

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