Michelle Malkin » Vacation’s over. Where’s TNR? Update: The questions Peter Beinart should have been asked

Vacation’s over. Where’s TNR? Update: The questions Peter Beinart should have been asked

By Michelle Malkin • August 16, 2007 09:53 AM

When last we revisited the Scott Thomas Beauchamp saga one week ago today, questions lingered about Colonel Quotey McQuoterton and Bob Owens had exposed hidden expert Doug Coffey. In the meantime, Bill Roggio received word from the Army’s Col. Steve Boylan that TNR’s claims of being stonewalled were flatly untrue:

We are not stonewalling anyone. There are official statements that are out there are on the record from several of us and nothing has changed.

We are not preventing him from speaking to TNR or anyone. He has full access to the Morale Welfare and Recreation phones that all the other members of the unit are free to use. It is my understanding that he has been informed of the requests to speak to various members of the media, both traditional and non-traditional and has declined. That is his right.

We will not nor can we force a Soldier to talk to the media or his family or anyone really for that matter in these types of issues.

We fully understand the issues on this. What everyone must understand is that we will not breach the rights of the Soldier and this is where this is at this point.

The response from TNR? As of this morning, I can’t find one. Can you?

In a devastating post, The Shield of Achilles surveys the silence of the Left-o-sphere.

At The American Thinker, two good pieces:

The Real Lesson of the Beauchamp Affair
It’s Not Just Scott Beauchamp

Bookmark the second piece. It’s sure to grow.

***

11:00am Eastern. Peter Beinart apparently has a response at NRO’s “What’s Your Problem?”, his video blog segment with Jonah Goldberg.

Update: Bryan Preston watches Beinart so you don’t have to and boils down the missed opportunities:

Beinart does nothing so much as continue the obfuscation and cover-up concerning Beauchamp, and is never really challenged on the hard facts of the case, such as:

1. Where’s the stratified mass grave?
2. Does the melted woman exist, and why couldn’t Pvt Beauchamp recognize her uniform as either civilian or military, and why did he intially report that his mocking her occurred in Iraq and then move the incident to Kuwait? What does that do to the overall narrative of Beauchamp’s being turned into a monster by Bush’s war? TNR “confirming the woman” doesn’t cut it, guys.
3. Are the Iraqi police the only ones using Glocks in all of Iraq?
4. Did TNR really put softball, vague questions to the Bradley expert in an attempt to lead him to offer vague support for Beauchamp’s dog story?
5. Why did TNR report that the Army was stonewalling its investigation, when Beauchamp has been free to speak all along?
6. Does TNR plan to continue to hire relatives of staffers to write reports from Iraq, and only fact-check those reports when criticized after publication?

And while Beinart delivers the magazine’s tapdancing defense on NRO, TNR itself remains silent four days after returning from vacation.

Another thumbs-down from Ace.

Posted in: Scott Thomas Beauchamp, They don't support the troops

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#117120

On August 16th, 2007 at 10:03 am, swj719AWG said:

Those two links for American Thinker both link to the same piece.
#117123

On August 16th, 2007 at 10:06 am, corona said:

Hmmm … bookbarking sounds like something a moonbat does when (accidentally, of course) reading the truth
#117127

On August 16th, 2007 at 10:19 am, terrig said:

Maybe the vacation was sooooooo good they’ll take a permanent one and close up shop!
#117131

On August 16th, 2007 at 10:30 am, Michelle Malkin said:

Fixed. Thanks.
#117136

On August 16th, 2007 at 10:40 am, havapilot said:

It’s no surprise there’s been no comment from TNR. To them, the Beauchump story is so 5 minutes ago!
#117144

On August 16th, 2007 at 11:12 am, Brian72 said:

These leftist blogger types are not going to give up the “victim-soldier” narrative, it’s too hard wired into their psyche. All the way back to John F’n Kerry before the senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, their point is that soldiers would have been ordinary people if not for the evil republican-defense complex that transformed them into mindless killing machines. They deserve our pity, not our admiration. The poor dupes, somebody has to save them!

Proving this inaccuracy is a necessary thing, but don’t expect that being caught lying is going to change anything. Did Rathergate change anything with the media? Nope. Names and faces might change, but the agenda marches on as always. When the media take casualties in their PR war against the right, they just medevac off the front lines and replenish the ranks to march on toward a liberal America, which is their mission.
#117149

On August 16th, 2007 at 11:48 am, brentano said:

There’s a reason they’re called the drive-by media.
#117153

On August 16th, 2007 at 11:58 am, Brian72 said:

On August 16th, 2007 at 11:48 am, brentano said:

There’s a reason they’re called the drive-by media.

Ditto.
#117161

On August 16th, 2007 at 12:28 pm, Regulus said:

There’s a reason they’re called the drive-by media.

I think we have a winner!
#117226

On August 16th, 2007 at 3:28 pm, corona said:

The list is missing one fabulist from a few years back. I remember that it was a woman who wrote for a big-city paper in the East. There were articles about a boy with drug-addicted parents, or something like that.
#117227

On August 16th, 2007 at 3:29 pm, corona said:

OK, he didn’t miss it – Janet Cooke – I was close – it was about an 8-year old heroin addict.