The Washington Post has had its share of blog woes now, first by shutting down the ability to comment on their blog, then the revelation that ‘Red America’ blogger Ben Domenech borrowed material five years ago for a movie review posted at National Review Online.
Liberal bloggers worked hard to discredit Domenech after the Post hired him as a part-time blogger. Their digging efforts bore fruit today, as they discovered he had plagiarized a review of the film “Final Fantasy” from Cox News Service writer Steve Murray in 2001.
As more evidence of Domenech’s previous borrowing-without-attribution surfaced, adding to the Daily Kos’ exposure of the movie review copying, even those who sided with the 24-year-old blogger’s political views began to call for his removal.
One of those conservatives, noted blogger Michele Malkin, called his copying “unacceptable.” She had been supportive of him at first, as he had helped edit one of her books, but ultimately called on him to “own up to it and step down.”
Jim Brady, executive editor of Washingtonpost.com, has his second blog.washingtonpost.com crisis since the new year began. In January, seemingly astonished by the vitriol commenters can bring to a blog’s comment section, Brady ordered the Post.Blog comment section disabled and existing comments deleted. They have since reenabled comments on Post.Blog.
However, Brady has not soured on the prospect of having a freelance conservative blogger contribute to the Post online. “We’re certainly likely to look for someone with a more traditional journalism background,” he said in the report.
Traditional journalism background *and* conservative? I think the most likely candidates have jobs already writing blogs.
Do you think a five-year-old example of plagiarism merits firing a blogger? Was this solid reporting by liberal bloggers or a witch hunt by the Angry Left? Visit and share your thoughts at SyndicationPro.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
