The Post's Continuing Adventures in the Blogosphere: The Washington Post, already under fire from progressives after acting as a de facto public relations firm for the Bush administration for five of the past six years, drew even more criticism last week after it decided to hire a right-wing blogger to further strengthen its conservative credentials.

Liberal bloggers first focused on the blatant contradiction between the comments of Washingtonpost.com opinion editor Hal Straus and executive editor Jim Brady. In response to questions about whether the site would provide balance by hiring a liberal blogger, Straus told readers that the site “hires writers for their ability to add something substantive to the national conversation… we look for that ability regardless of political labels.” Unfortunately, Brady was taking exactly the opposite position, explaining that blogger Ben Domenech was hired because “we were completely unrepresented by a social conservative voice.”

But the story took an interesting turn after it was revealed that Domenech—previously best know for his vicious personal attack on Coretta Scott King following her death earlier this year—was also a serial plagiarist. And so by the middle of the week, Domenech had resigned and the Post was presumably looking for another social conservative blogger, regardless of his or her politics.

Yet another example of the mainstream media’s difficulties wrestling with a new medium.