The Washington Post hired a blogger named Ben Domench recently to write a blog called Red America.

He was hired around March 20th. He resigned today because of plagiarism.

Resigned, effective immediately. 
This kind of thing ticks a lot of people off, and it should. There are hundreds of bloggers that would like to write for traditional media and get paid for it. Domench just made it a bit harder for people to trust blogs and to take blog writers seriously.

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.

Jim Brady
Executive Editor, washingtonpost.com

If you are going to go mainstream, you need to know you are going to be under heavy pressure. Interestingly it has been blogs that have helped expose Ben Domench lifting other people’s work, on all sides of the US political spectrum. Lifting, plagiarizing, theft.

For some reason his name sounds familiar - he is being defended at RedState (some US faith bloggers I’m familiar with are part of that political blog  Domench is 24 - this plagiarism discovered is not just the indiscretion of youth. Interesting the Washington Post didn’t google some of his work - apparently teachers check students work that way a fair bit.

Mr. Domench - you work for a paycheque for a media organization, and you plagiarize, you are gone.
Apparently Domench was hired as a ‘conservative’ blogger, which means he received his share of nasty ‘liberal’ comments at the Washington Post. That’s tough, and deadlines are tough, but what I’m not understanding is how he could lift things so blatantly and expect not to be caught. 
As the National Review media blog says, this isn’t just a college paper. (apparently Domench plagerized a movie review for the NRO also)

Sad.
Sad for a plagiarizer entering the real world, sad for bloggers trying to get a paying gig, sad for traditional media trying to build bridges.

Update 2: NRO editors dug up Domench’s work and laid it out. I suspect a lot of editors from various publications will be busy the next few days. No more blustering or blaming, Domench has apologized. 

Update 1: Ouch. Good roundup. A lot of people have been burned by Ben’s behaviour.
Mr. Domench’s rebuttal.
His bio and blog.
Media Matters. Even if Domench was as pure as the driven snow, electronic footprints can’t be erased.
Unfortunately plagiarizing (and accusations of) can’t be played off as a left/right argument. He has his fame that he has worked for. He is the top tag at Technorati.