By: E&P Staff Ben Domenech's conservative blog Red America lasted all of three days at the Washington Post. He quit today after numerous examples of alleged plagiarism in his work surfaced. Yesterday, in a separate matter, he had apologized for calling Coretta Scott King a "Communist" the day after her recent funeral.
The highly embarrassing episode for the Post culminated Friday afternoon when washingtonpost.com executive editor Jim Brady published a notice on the Web site announcing that Domenech had "resigned." However, Domenech was then quoted in Human Events, the conservative magazine, as admitting he had been pushed out.
?I guess the thing that bothers me the most about this is that the Post didn?t give this a chance to either blow over or work itself out,? he said. ?And I feel that if they had done that, the blog would have been a great addition to their site....I felt like if I didn?t resign, they would have pushed me out?if not today, then Monday.?
He also said: ?While I appreciated the opportunity to go and join the Washington Post, if they didn?t expect the leftists were going to come after me with their sharpened knives, then they were fools.?
Brady later confirmed that, indeed, Domenech would have been let go if he hadn't quit. Brady also admitted to the Post's Howard Kurtz that the Web site had not checked out Domenech sufficiently before hiring him--and that now the paper would likely look to a hire an actual journalist to take over the blog.
In a posting at RedState.org, which he co-founded, Domenech wrote, "The truth is, no conservative could write for the Post without being subject to the gauntlet of the liberal attack machine."
Brady's announcement at Washingtonpost.com read:
"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 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.
"We appreciate the speed and thoroughness with which our readers and media outlets surfaced these allegations. Despite the turn this has taken, we believe this event, among other things, testifies to the positive and powerful role that the Internet can play in the the practice of journalism.
"We also remain committed to representing a broad spectrum of ideas and ideologies in our Opinions area."
David Brock, president of the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America, issued a statement in response:
?We at Media Matters are pleased the Ben Domenech will no longer be employed by the Post, but serious questions remain about why he was originally hired. The Post still needs to explain why a partisan operative who admits he is not a journalist and who has a history of racially charged rhetoric, homophobic bigotry, and serial plagiarism was given a platform on Washingtonpost.com in the first place. We look forward to a full explanation of these and related issues by the Post.?
Criticism of the Post's hiring of Domenech had also emerged from within the paper's own ranks. Political reporter Dana Milbank in an online chat at the paper's Web site said today: "What I don't understand (although I haven't inquired) is why the website couldn't recruit somebody with more stature to do the job. This city is crawling with good conservative journalists with lots of heft."
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