Matt Donegan, a reporter from Dover, Delaware has been fired from his job at the Dover Post newspaper after his employer was made aware of allegedly offensive comments on his MySpace blog.

Donegan complained on his blog about his African American neighbors partying late on the evening before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. He commented that he believed “King’s assassin was awakened by black people on the night before he killed King”.

Donegan denies the comments are racist and claims they were all in good fun.

NBC 10 reports that Donegan said his firing violates his free speech rights, but his editor said the blog postings went beyond the pale.

“He’s a nice guy, he’s a good reporter, a good writer and I don’t wish him any harm,” said the paper’s editor, Don Flood. “But there is no way he could possibly represent the Dover Post.”