The Washington Post hired a blogger earlier this week to balance out the WaPo's own Dan Froomkin's left-of-center leanings. It hired Ben Domenech, a founder of RedState.org and a former editor at Regnery Publishing (the publishing equivalent of the Death Star to liberals).
Liberal bloggers then began digging up whatever they could on Domenech. Amidst the usual puerile ramblings and accusations of racism, sexism, fascism, etc., the lefties did find something bad.
And something inexcusable: Domenech is a plagiarist.
Nor was this a one-off situation. Domenech plagiarized while writing for the college paper when he was at William & Mary (the WaPo should've hired a Virginia man) and in at least one piece he wrote on National Review Online. NRO in turn found the alleged source of Domenech's writing, compared the two and apologized to Cox News Service's writer -- in other words, he did it.
The liberals, who sought to take him down merely because Domenech is a conservative, celebrated. Meanwhile, conservative bloggers called for his head. And they got it. Less than a week after his hiring, Domenech resigned.
Good. Plagiarism is to writing what Pete Rose's gambling is to baseball -- the line that must not be crossed. It's good to see the WaPo, lefties and right-wing bloggers all getting this one right. Too bad other serial plagiarists are still enjoying exalted status as intellectuals and writers (three words: Doris Kearns Goodwin).
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