In an earlier posting on The New Republic / Scott Thomas affair, I asked some questions. It seems now we’ve got answers. The Weekly Standard reports that Pvt. Beauchamp (Thomas) has recanted everything.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned from a military source close to the investigation that Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp–author of the much-disputed “Shock Troops” article in the New Republic’s July 23 issue as well as two previous “Baghdad Diarist” columns–signed a sworn statement admitting that all three articles he published in the New Republic were exaggerations and falsehoods–fabrications containing only “a smidgen of truth,” in the words of our source.
Oops. So instead of Beauchamp’s anecdotes illustrating the “morally and emotionally distorting effects of war“, we’ve got the New Republic’s bullshit peddling which illustrates the morally and emotionally distorting effects of failing to report the truth. Back Talk has a list of fake anti-war news stories to which this scandal is, sadly, only the most recent instance.
The New Republic is repeating the Stephen Glass boondoggle. The only questions I have now for the tattered rag are:
- When will we see any reporting in the mainstream media of this incident?
- When will Franklin Foer be fired and how many others will follow him?
Over the weekend, Foer was on the offense trying to spin this into a smear campaign by the eevil Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Dean Barnett at Hugh Hewitt’s blog reports:
On Friday night, Franklin Foer momentarily emerged from his extended state of isolation and took to the airways in Los Angeles. He was one of the guest hosts for Los Angeles-based KCRW’s weekly schmooze–fest called “Left, Right and Center.” At the end of each broadcast, the hosts are allowed 25 seconds apiece to vamp on a topic that interests them. Here’s how Franklin Foer used his time:
“My magazine this last week has been subject of basically a smear job by the Weekly Standard and a lot of the conservative blogosphere over a piece that we published from a soldier in Iraq, which we have gone back and re-reported and it turned out to be aside from one mistake to be the case and I just wish that there was, and this sounds like a trite mainstream media criticism, but that those in the blogosphere who kind of move from one reckless allegation to another reckless allegation for once apologize when they get something wrong.”
Foer’s into Mary Mapes / Dan Rather territory now. His rag is in a death-spiral because of Beauchamp’s writings, an editorial breakdown inside TNR, and an inability to step-up and be transparent and honest when addressing legitimate concerns on what really happened. Memo to journalism schools everywhere. Let this serve as an example of what not to do.
1 response so far ↓
1 Clay // Aug 7, 2007 at
You ask questions that imply consequences for these fraudulent actions and lies. There will be no consequences, and for that reason, you might as well complain about the sunrise.
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