The Washington Post Wades Back Into the Blogosphere

Posted on April 7, 2006

In the wake of the Washington Post blogging debacle, the newspaper is now starting over in the blogosphere: the paper is now actively looking to hire one conservative blogger and one liberal blogger to create a kind of "Point-Counterpoint" of Blogging.

If you missed the blogging mishap of the legendary newspaper, here's the Cliff Notes Version: The Post's online manager hired Ben Domenech, an extremely conservative blogger, to "counter" the liberal bias of one of the paper's editorial writers. The new blogger, who co-founded RedState.org, was fired within the week after both liberal and conservative bloggers erupted over the discovery that Domenech was a serial plagiarizer. Salon.com ran an entire piece listing all the work that Domenech has stolen from its site. Domenech becomes a blogging pariah and the Post looks much like the New York Times did after the Jayson Blair story broke: ridiculous.

Bloggers with journalism experience should start networking, because it's likely that other newspapers will also follow suit. Plagiarizers need not apply, though.