Washingtonpost.com hired Ben Domenech just three days earlier to widen the ideological spectrum of its online commentary. But liberal bloggers objected that he was unqualified and extreme -- for example, he labeled civil rights icon Coretta Scott King a "communist."

The liberal Daily Kos website posted Domenech's review of the film "Final Fantasy" that included a passage echoing one written by Atlanta Journal-Constitution film reviewer Steve Murray. Both contained an identical description of alien beings: "Translucent and glowing, they ooze up from the ground and float through solid walls."

On Friday afternoon, Domenech offered a detailed and emotional response to the allegations in a posting on Redstate.com, a conservative blog that he helped create. He said some of the plagiarism accusations were simply wrong. Other allegations were related to a "single semester's worth of pieces" when he was a 17- year-old undergraduate at William & Mary, he said.