Friday, March 24, 2006

Redstate Blogger Seeing Red After Resignation From Post Amid Plagiarism Charges

It's been less than a week since the Washington Post announced that it was hiring Redstate.org blogger, Ben Domenech, to host the Red America blog on its online edition. But today, the Post announced it had accepted his resignation amid charges that he had plagiarized some of his past writings before joining the Post. In accepting his resignation, Executive Editor Jim Brady wrote:

When we hired Domenech, we were not aware of any allegations that he had plagiarized any of his past writings. In any cases where allegations such as these are made, we will continue to investigate those charges thoroughly in order to maintain our journalistic integrity.

Plagiarism is perhaps the most serious offense that a writer can commit or be accused of. Washingtonpost.com will do everything in its power to verify that its news and opinion content is sourced completely and accurately at all times.



No sooner had the Post hired Domenech than the criticism of him and the Post's decision to hire him start coming from the left. Domenech is defending himself in the wake of his abrupt resignation. “While I appreciated the opportunity to go and join the Washington Post,” Domenech said, “if they didn’t expect the leftists were going to come after me with their sharpened knives, then they were fools.” He claims there is an explanation for every example of plagiarism cited by his critics. “I felt like if I didn’t resign, they would have pushed me out—if not today, then Monday,” he said.

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