It’s official, Ben Domenech has resigned.
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.
The above was written by Jim Brady, the executive editor of washingtonpost.com. I believe that Brady had no idea that Domenech plagiarized so much of his work, but the next question is why the Post didn’t do more to find out.
There will be some additional fall-out, but in the meantime, “Red America” is no more.
Update 1: Alec Oveis makes a point that I strongly agree with: “I think they should never have hired such a shrill, inexperienced hack in the first place, but I would have liked to have seen the Post show him the door after he put out a few more Corretta-Scott-King-is-a-Communist-like comments.”
Quite right. Plagiarism clearly was responsible for the demise of “Red America,” but it’s interesting that the WaPo was ready to stick with a far-right activist for one of the premier jobs in online journalism, right up until it found out he stole stuff. The fact remains the Post chose a rookie bombthrower for a prestigious writing gig for no other reason than to make the right happy. Plagiarism made this a fiasco, but it’d be a shame if the Post comes away from this mess thinking, “This would have been a great move if Domenech hadn’t stolen other people’s work.”
Update 2: On a similar note, Atrios also raises a good point: “[I]f the Post had announced a ‘Blue America’ along with ‘Red America’ Ben’s plagiarism likely would’ve never been discovered. The outrage was over the fact that once again conservatives succeeding in mau-mauing a mainstream media outlet into balancing reporters with conservatives.”
Update 3: A lot of what I’ve heard from others suggests Domenech’s resignation is the first step towards resolving the controversy, not the last. For the purposes of accountability, someone at the WaPo will now have to explain who was responsible for hiring Domenech, who reviewed his background, etc.
Update 4: Ezra assumes, probably correctly, that the Post will keep “Red America,” but find a slightly less controversial blogger-in-residence. He opens the floor to nominations. I’d vote for John Cole, though my sense is that the right wouldn’t accept him as nearly doctrinaire enough.