If you honestly think you did a heckuva job vetting Domenech, Mr. Brady, you need to resign, too.

You read everything this guy has written in the last few years? You read how he called Corretta Scott King a communist, and you still hired him? You read how his insight included the idea of killing black babies to bring the crime rate down, and you thought he'd make a valuable addition to your website? If that's your idea of sound judgement, you belong in the Bush Administration not working as a news editor.

Oh, and it took how long for literally dozens of instances of Domenech's plagiarism to be unearthed by liberal (read reality-based) bloggers? Oh that's right, a day.

Maybe in your new job, Jim, you can be a secret shopper with Claude Allen, you both seem to have about the same grip on today's reality, or is the real person responsible for hiring Box Turtle Ben your evil twin?

"The lesson we've learned is that if we go back and do this again, we'll probably look more in the traditional journalist community," Brady said.

I love how Brady thinks this happened because Domenech was a blogger instead a "traditional" journalist... Meanwhile, if it wasn't for bloggers, Brady would have no idea that he had hired a serial plagiarist to represent the Washington Post online.

And, he still offers no justification for why the site needs a conservative voice, but there is no need for a liberal voice -- "potentially" they might hire a liberal. I would bet money the next new blogger will be another conservative.

I have no problem with the Post looking to add a conservative voice to it's blog community. Froomkin does such an amazing job with his column that any writer will have a very difficult time looking good by comparison.

To quote our Glorious and Wise Leader, "Bring 'em on!".

Along those lines, I think Benny did a heck of a job with those movies reviews for the Flat Hat. :)

That someone from the so-called party of personal responsibility would blame others for his sins of plagiarism. Ben is another fine example of Republican hypocrisy at work; and, like his idol, the frat boy who would be king, he's neither adult enough or moral enough to stand up and take responsibility for his own mistakes. Nice to see him taken down a notch or ten.

I have to assume that the Post was unaware of this guy's alter-ego as "Augustine", since I have difficulty believing they would have hired him had they read what he wrote under that name.

Has anyone asked Brady if they he read the Augustine postings?

Sounds like the editors made their decision based on "darn good intelligence"...

Nobody could have predicted this guy had been a plagarist!

I always used to think the Washington Post was a

Ruling Class sockpuppet. But they've spent the last

few years becoming a Republican Party condom. Well,

Washington Post...which is it?

Iraq, of course! In uniform, carrying a weapon.

1. Open web browser.

2. Open search engine. (It actually doesn't have to be Google.)

3. Type in phrases from the writing of someone you're "checking thoroughly."

4. Click "Search Now."

5. Compare already published results with your candidate's writing.

6. Bust a plagiarist.

How do these journalists at a supposedly "elite" organization (not to mention their human resources staff) lack basic skills that teachers across the country have used for a decade?

Lazy. Ignorant. Weak. Lame. This is the Washington Post?

I've written for the Washington Post, Jerusalem Report, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and yes, even a student newspaper way back when, and no editor ever, repeat, ever inserted chunks of prose into my work. What editor has the time?

That explanation is pure nonsense. How can he believe anyone will credit it?

Likewise, "Domenech also wrote that he had personally received permission from writer P.J. O'Rourke to do a 'college-specific version of his classic piece on partying.'" If that's the case, then why didn't he footnote O'Rourke in some way?

The guy was lazy and stupid and got caught. So of course, it's somebody else's fault. I wonder why Domenech's critics hate America so much. . .

Apparently, Brady and the Washington Post have lost themselves and their understanding of how trust is earned and held. Pursuing articles with no other purpose than to provocate and represent a specific political bias, particularly when looking not for reportage but "whose opinions are not necessarily in line with the majority of people who read the site", diminshes the trust of the majority of the Washington Post's readers. It smacks of slanting coverage to appease unscrupulous critics. It brings to mind the McCarthy Era and the Hearst publications. Brady would serve his paper and his public better by finding the new Edward R. Murrow -- or Woodward -- who finds the facts and does what's right. No matter how unpopular with the current Globally Warmed politcal climate.

BTW, Brady, here's a tip from the hinterlands -- the people know the NeoCons are lying.

The right-wing blowhards of this country have spent 30 years chanting the 'liberal media' mantra over and over again, to the point where, just like everything else they repeat, it eventually becomes 'truth'. The media have been cowed by this label to the point where they will do anything and everything to bend over backward to prove that they have no liberal bias.

Here's a piece of hard ugly truth to chew on, people: a free press, a TRULY free press, is by it's very nature liberal. It is liberal in the respect that it has an open mind to the factual substance of every story, and reports those facts in an unabashed and unvarnished manner, whether those facts and that truth hurt granola grazing tree-hugging fag-lovers or gun toting, flag waving, boot-jacked fascist pigs. At least it should.

The use of Mr Domenech and his'work' is just another example of the media trotting out the most hateful right-wing tripe it can just to prove it isn't 'liberal'.

One last thing, I have nothing against fag-lovers or fascist pigs. To quote Thomas Jefferson they 'neither pick my pocket nor break my leg'. (Note to Mr Domenech: that's what we call 'referencing' or 'footnoting'.... try it sometime.)