Drudge: The Beauchamp transcripts; Foer to Beauchamp: “Let us control the way this story proceeds;” Foer exploits Beauchamp’s wife: “Ellie sent me an e-mail to tell you that it’s the most important thing in the world for her that you say that you didn’t recant;” Update: Foer whines, attacks the military again; Update: WaPo gets spun
Update 9:54am Eastern. Ed Morrissey also picks up on the paragraph in the Kurtz story in which Foer claims that “Beauchamp defended his story in a subsequent conversation that was conducted with no superiors present:”
Did he? Then why hasn’t TNR published the transcript of that conversation? After all, I’m certain that one of the reporters or editors in the room for that call must have recorded the conversation, if for no other reason than to make sure they had his affirmation on the record. That’s what reporters do when trying to ensure accuracy and verification….right?
Instead, we see today that TNR still has not responded to the release of the Army documentation. No one has even addressed the story at The Plank, TNR’s staff blog. No one, from Martin Peretz on down, has bothered to give an explanation for the transcript in which Foer threatened Beauchamp with his wife’s job if he recanted, or the named soldiers in the Army report who denied Beauchamp’s claims. All Foer can do is to argue — through Kurtz — that he has verified the stories with anonymous sources.
I find it hilariously ironic that Foer refuses to defend himself and TNR in his own magazine, but instead goes whining to Howard Kurtz — at the newspaper that he demanded Beauchamp refuse to engage. I wonder why Kurtz didn’t ask him about that, and ask Foer why he was talking to the Post when he didn’t want Beauchamp to do so. Foer’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Update 6:45am Eastern. Here is Howard Kurtz getting spun by Franklin Foer. I love how the editors of The New Republic make themselves so accessible only to hapless journalists incapable of asking the most obvious, simple questions about the magazine’s appalling journalistic malpractice.
Questions like:
So, uh, does this mean your “investigation” is done yet? When do you plan to tell your own readers about the transcripts? Why have you suppressed the existence of the Beauchamp conversation for more than a month? When will you retract your assertion that the military was gagging Beauchamp? Who did you file your FOIA request with and when?
For starters.
Annoyingly, Kurtz completely omits the significance of Beauchamp’s fabricated story about the non-existent disfigured contractor. Here’s what he wrote:
Beauchamp had written that he and other soldiers had taunted a female soldier whose face was badly disfigured. The Army report said every soldier interviewed in Beauchamp’s unit could not recall such a woman and called the account “completely fabricated.”
Hello?
Beauchamp wrote that he had taunted the woman while on the battlefront in Iraq–supposedly a sign of how war dehumanized him and his fellow soldiers. Except when challenged, Beauchamp then claimed that it happened in Kuwait. Before he had gone to war. And neither the military nor TNR can find anyone who will step forward publicly to corroborate this tall tale.
Someone send Howard a cluebat.
Another snort-worthy load of you-know-what from Foer:
While Beauchamp “didn’t stand by his stories in that conversation, he didn’t recant his stories,” Foer said in an interview. “He obviously was under considerable duress during that conversation, with his commanding officer in the room with him.”
While the discussion “was extremely frustrating and engendered doubts,” Foer said, Beauchamp defended his story in a subsequent conversation that was conducted with no superiors present.
And Foer planned to tell his readers about this…when?
Update 10:18am Eastern. My friend Mark Steyn gets it. Phew.
Update 8:03pm Eastern. TNR = Laughingstock.
Ed Morrissey makes this very, very simple for the uninitiated: “Foer can cast this in conspiracy theories all week long. In the end, TNR had all of the information it needed to conclude that Beauchamp lied to them and to their readers. Foer and TNR chose to keep it to themselves.”
Let me put it even more simply: Beauchamp lied, TNR’s credibility died (again).
Update 6:50pm Eastern. Franklin Foer comes out from under his desk to whine to the NY Observer about the transcripts being leaked. All of this damning transcript evidence of TNR’s attempts to cover up, and what does Foer do? He attacks the military again:
“It’s maddening to see the Army selectively leak to the Drudge Report things that we’ve been trying to obtain from them through Freedom of Information Act requests,” Mr. Foer said. “This fits a pattern in this case where the army has leaked a lot of stuff to right wing blogs.”
Mr. Foer said TNR had been trying since July to get access to some of the documents Mr. Drudge posted, but that the Army had not cooperated.
A reader e-mails: “Pathetic…he was waiting for access to his own conversation?”
Moreover, what is Foer’s evidence that it was the military that leaked the transcripts to Drudge?
What is it? Inquiring minds want to know.
The ship sinks and sinks and sinks.
Update: “If” they were wronged?
Update 5:30pm Eastern. My friend Kathryn Lopez misses the point entirely, I’m afraid.
I repeat Ace’s distillation for those who have only superficial knowledge of this scandal: Remember: TNR Hid The Existence Of This Phone Call From The World.
To paraphrase the Clintons: It’s the cover-up, stupid.
And TNR’s sliming of The Weekly Standard.
And TNR’s false allegations that the military was censoring Beauchamp.
And TNR’s pathetic attempts to wrest control of the story from Beauchamp as he attempted to tell other media outlets that he was not being gagged, use Beauchamp’s wife as a wedge, and refusal to acknowledge the truth of their journalistic malpractice.
Get it?
Update 4:15pm Eastern. I saved the transcripts. You can access them and read them in their entirety for yourselves here, here, and here.
The Jawa Report has also posted the docs.
Meanwhile, Bryan Preston put in a call to Franklin Foer. He’s in a meeting at the moment. He’s a very, very busy man, you know.
Update 3:50pm Eastern. The Weekly Standard’s Michael Goldfarb, who got the ball rolling over the summer on this story, speaks:
It is now clear that somewhere along the way, TNR stopped acting in good faith and started doing damage control. They cited a Bradley expert who purportedly confirmed that the vehicle could be operated as Beauchamp described. But when Bob Owens tracked down said expert, BAE spokesmen Doug Coffey, he denied making any such statement, saying that TNR had mischaracterized his comments and that the editors had never shown him Beauchamp’s stories. He added that having read the stories, they were indeed “suspicious,” and that he did not believe the Bradley could be operated as described. TNR never acknowledged Coffey’s later statements or its apparent misrepresentation of his earlier statement.
And then came our report that Scott Beauchamp was no longer standing by his stories. The editors at TNR responded to this report by insinuating that THE WEEKLY STANDARD was not a credible source. They also accused the Army of “stonewalling” and preventing them from speaking with their author. That was on August 10. Bob Owens subsequently reported that TNR spoke to Beauchamp on September 7–the transcript now posted on Drudge–but TNR never returned to the subject, despite their claims of a “commitment to the truth” in that August 10 statement.
The documents posted by Drudge reveal that the New Republic’s editors have known for several weeks that the central anecdote of the story was untrue, that the other anecdotes were deeply suspect, and that the author was no longer standing by his work. And yet they remained publicly silent even though they had long ago promised to be open and forthcoming on the matter. Worse still, they asked Beauchamp to cancel pending interviews with the Washington Post and Newsweek, lest their complicity in Beauchamp’s slanders come to light.
Foer attacked his magazine’s critics as “reckless” and “ideologically motivated,” at one point even demanding an apology from the bloggers who did so much to advance this story and find out the truth of the matter. He now has more than a little ’splaining to do.
Meanwhile, the Drudge link is now gone and NRO’s The Corner is oddly downplaying the transcripts and waiting for TNR’s talking points. From Peter Beinart, perhaps?
I’m not sure how you make “Let us control the way this story proceeds” and “Ellie sent me an e-mail to tell you that it’s the most important thing in the world for her that you say that you didn’t recant” sound less damning than they are. Good luck.
Update 2:51pm Eastern. 
After apologizing to its readers and advertisers, TNR editor Franklin Foer needs to apologize to the Army and our troops for continuing to suggest that the military stonewalled while the magazine obstructed the truth. Then, it seems to me, he will need to apologize to Beauchamp’s wife for cravenly exploiting her to try to save his sorry ass.
I didn’t think there could be a bigger crapweasel than Scott Thomas Beauchamp in this mess.
Franklin Foer wins, hands down.
Bob Owens weighs in: “Now that they have been posted on the public record, these disclosures should end careers at The New Republic.”
Ace of Spades, who was vilified for doing digging no one else would do, boils it down:
Remember: TNR Hid The Existence Of This Phone Call From The World. We only even knew previously that this phone call had taken place because a source of Confederate Yankee’s told him about it. TNR did not mention it. Even after it was disclosed, TNR did not comment on it, nor explain their reasons for withholding information about a fiction they had printed as truth. Reading the transcript, I can see why someone whose reputation and career depended on the story being true could convince himself the story had not been fully recanted. Foer could tell himself, “The guy is evasive, there are officers listening, he can’t say anything. So I can’t take this as a retraction.” I can see how he could tell himself that.
However, I cannot see where he convinced himself he could hide the existence of the call from the world, nor report to TNR’s readers his reasons for doubting the phone call proved anything. TNR could have said: “A recent phone call with Scott Beauchamp leaves us in a no man’s land where Beauchamp will neither re-affirm nor recant the stories to us. We suspect he is worried about his career in the military and possible punishment. He will not say he is, however. Under these circumstances, we must provisionally retract the stories, though we have no firm evidence they are false. But with a compromised writer also unable to affirm they’re true, neither can we stand by these stories.”
That would have been a (mostly) honest appraisal of the situation, at least from their own need-to-believe point of view.
Instead, however, rather than accurately and honestly describing Beauchamp’s complete refusal to affirm the stories as true, and offering their reasons for doubting this refusal to affirm to be conclusive, they instead simply withheld facts in their possession from the world and pretended the call never happened at all.
Update 2:45pm Eastern. Another snort-worthy moment from the phone conference transcript–watch Franklin Foer take umbrage at being lumped in with the rest of “the media:”
Ridiculous indeed.
Part III of Drudge’s posting of the leaked transcripts is the official Army investigative report dated July 31, 2007. It is thorough, detailed, and damning. The findings are no surprise to anyone who has followed the story in the blogosphere:
Update 2:18pm Eastern. 
Glenn Reynolds searches for reaction from the TNR. Silence so far. It’s the sound of heads getting ready to roll. Also: I find it curious how TNR’s Peter Beinart never brought this up in his videoblog show with Jonah Goldberg. Must have just slipped his mind over the last month. Meanwhile, what apt timing: Commenter Capitano notes that the Independent Film Channel will be airing “Shattered Glass,” the saga of TNR’s first journalistic internal combustion, twice on Friday. Grab the popcorn.
Speaking of that movie, here’s Allahpundit’s reaction to the first part of the phone conference transcript: “It reads, I kid you not, like a scene from ‘Shattered Glass.’ All that’s missing is, ‘Are you mad at me, Frank?’”
Heh.
Update: Okay. The transcripts are posted in three parts. Here are the participants in the September 7, 2007 phone conference between Scott Thomas Beauchamp and TNR…
At the very start of the call, Foer asks if Beauchamp has any restrictions. Beauchamp replies: “Other than OPSEC violations, I can talk about anything I want.” In direction contradiction to the “Army is gagging Beauchamp” propaganda from TNR, the transcript makes clear that it is Beauchamp’s choice not to talk to the media:
The conversation turns to Beauchamp’s wife, Ellie, then a reporter-researcher for the magazine, and Beauchamp’s foot-dragging on providing statements backing up his stories:
Now, here is a truly disgusting moment. Beauchamp lets TNR know he wants to talk to other news outlets to tell them he is NOT being censored. And what does TNR do? It attempts to censor him. Franklin Foer, and I quote, leans on Beauchamp to “let us control the way this story proceeds.”
Oh, and here’s more of crapweasel Foer using Beauchamp’s wife to try and extract corroborating statements from Beauchamp:
***
Wow. Someone leaked the Scott Thomas Beauchamp transcripts to Drudge. I’m reading through them now. Stand by.
Bob Owens, who has been on this story like white on the rice from the get-go and broken ground the MSM refused to all along the way, summed up the sorry state of TNR two days ago:
Far from intellectual honesty, the senior editor staff of The New Republic have proven their intractable corruption. Editor Franklin Foer, Executive Editor J. Peter Scoblic, and Senior Editor Jason Zengerle failed to do their jobs as editors, published a false story (though there are indications that all three of the author’s stories were fabricated, in whole or in part), more than likely lied when they claimed the allegations made had been fact-checked prior to publication, and then ran a false investigation that involved misrepresenting the claims of at least one expert, while attempting to bury the story and exerting influence over the author to cancel interviews with other interested publications…
…Details will continue to trickle out revealing just how deceptive the editorial staff at The New Republic has been to its readership and critics alike, and once those details are made public, I very much doubt that Franklin Foer, Peter Scoblic, and Jason Zengerle will be able to survive the coming purge.
As Scott Johnson has observed repeatedly, “It’s the cover-up that kills you.”
***
Michael Goldfarb and the Weekly Standard first launched the salvos that may sink TNR entirely here.
Flashback: Yoo-hoo. Has anyone seen Franklin Foer?
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Neocon News » Total collapse of the bogus 'Shock Troop' story and Scotty Beauchamp
- Bill's Bites
- Marginalized Action Dinosaur » Let us control the way this story proceeds,
- Captain's Quarters
- instapinch.com » Blog Archive » Beauchamp and The New Republic
- Hemingway, Under Glass (UPDATE: TNR Shut Down Beauchamp) at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source.
- Fascinating stuff involving The New Republic « Bookworm Room
- Cold Fury » Blog Archive » Phony soldiers, MSM stupes
- Sister Toldjah
- The New Republic Fails to Tell World Beauchamp Won’t Defend Stories » The American Mind
- Suitably Flip
- The Jawa Report
- Drudge Busts The New Republic’s Scott Beaucamp Coverup, Wide Open at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source.
- Webloggin - Blog Archive » Fascinating Stuff Involving The New Republic
- Wizbang
- Media Mythbusters Blog » Blog Archive » Drudge posts devastating transcripts in New Republic “Shock Troops” story
- Daily Pundit » Four Layers of Left-Wing Propagandists Editors….
- ResurrectionSong
- Flopping Aces
- Foer Speaks, Attacks Military : American Pundit
- The New Republic: Proven Liars | BitsBlog
- GINA COBB
- Take Our Country Back
- justbarkingmad.com » Blog Archive » The New Republic
- Ethics, Journalism, Fact Checking and TNR « The Van Der Galiën Gazette
- A Convenient Leak for Dan Quayle’s Brain « his vorpal sword
- Is this the Final Chapter of the Beauchamp Saga? at Forward Deployed
- BizzyBlog » Couldn’t Help But Notice (102507)
- Captain's Quarters
- Foer Still Spinning at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source.
- This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » Beauchamp and The New Republic hung by their own petard
- Jon Swift
- Soldiers' Angel - Holly Aho
- Michelle Malkin » Beauchamp alert: The New Republic comes out from under its desk
- Foer comes out from under his desk… « The Foxhole
- Why Our Prosperity Threatens Itself
- Michelle Malkin » Bombshell…TNR ‘fesses up: The Beauchamp stories are bullcrap
- Michelle Malkin » Soldiers and puppies: Two narratives
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Scott Thomas Beauchamp
Mudville Gazette
» PA12 GOP: Burns over Russell
Pundit & Pundette
» Updates from 'Health-Care Hell'Riehl World View
» Stupak: Dem Leadership Wants More Children Aborted To Cut CostsPundit & Pundette
» Friday various & sundryLegal Insurrection
» The "All You Can Eat" Reconciliation Buffet
Who will speak up first New Republic or Huff and Puff or Kos some other group proclaiming
“The US military TORTURED Beauchamp to make this confession !”
TNR appology? I won’t be holding my breath.
Just scanned this, I think Scott needs a mental evaluation regardless of what the recommendation was.
Would it be in bad taste to ask the nut to go through with being a real Hemingway all the way to the end?
Hens are coming home to roost…
And there you have it…
Boy, that’ll teach Rush Limbaugh to stop throwing the term “phony soldier” around so freely.
Can’t wait to bid on Harry Reid’s next letter to the head of The New Republic…
I’d like to see some type of legal action against The New Republic. You have the right to publish the news under freedom of the press, but doesn’t it end somewhere (namely anti-US propaganda efforts)?
Ha, that’s a good one BrianNY.
How timely, since Shattered Glass has been showing on IFC — here’s the schedule for this week:
TV Schedule Results (Next 30 days)
Shattered Glass
Friday, October 26 10:40 AM
Shattered Glass
Friday, October 26 4:10 PM
You know, the liberal media has become a cancer on society. Sure there are honest brokers on the left, but like moderate Muslims, they need to take back their ideology. Conservatives can’t save them from themselves. We can only warn the unsuspecting.
S-E-D-I-T-I-O-N. End the New Republic’s editors.
The first liberal media outlets to pounce on this story will have a chance to regain some of that lost credibility.
Then again, do they really care to?
Who needs credibility when you have celebrities?
Oh, but it were true. If it were I would have but one question:
Did they taze him or waterboard him?
No surprises here. Send him back to Iraq with some seasoned troops. They will square him away.
Um..and like, Um…I know that, so I sorta, it’s just insane, Um and that is what I have so far. I’m basically saying, I want to end it.
Oh no, don’t say it’s so, you were gonna be somebody, you were gonna be a contender…Stella!!!!
Scott Thomas Beauchamp, you can add Tease, to the list of your accomplishments.
If memory serves they executed Tokyo Rose.
Saner days.
How would you like to be “Gene” – the TNR appointed attorney for Mr. Beauchamp?!
Scoblic: are you standing by your story then?
Beauchamp: I’m not talking about it at all. I’m not commenting on it at all anymore. On any of my military experiences.
“Gene”: Oh maaaan…why did I ever turn down the job offer from that fat rendering plant last year?
I just read through all the documents and all I can say is wow on how he treated the TNR editors with his call. I hope TNR learned not to trust anyone in the future without fact checking because he just destoryed thier credibility completely.
What gets really gets me is the date of this conversation and TNR complete lack to report about it after this converation.
Looks like Wikipedia better do an update: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Republic#Scott_Thomas_Beauchamp_controversy
It’s a good thing we could rely on the MSM and Media Matters to stay ahead of this story.
/
Is Foer still on vacation with Ellen Goodman?
Brent, you could do the update yourself on Wikipedia.
It’s cool like that…
To me the most (well one of the most) disgusting statements by Foer was:
“Ellie sent me an e-mail to tell you that it’s the most important thing in the world for her that you say that you didn’t recant”
Wouldn’t a wife’s most important thing in the world be his safety? Foer sounds like one manipulative jerk.
All mentions of Beauchamp have been removed from tnr.com.
a cached version of their story from 8/10/07 says:
“We once again invite the Army to make public Beauchamp’s statements and the details of its investigation–and we ask the Army to let us (or any other media outlet, for that matter) speak to Beauchamp. Unless and until these things happen, we cannot fairly assess any of these reports about Beauchamp–and therefore have no reason to change our own assessment of Beauchamp’s work. If the truth ends up reflecting poorly on our judgment, we will accept responsibility for that. But we also refuse to rush to judgment on our writer or ourselves.”
I guess taking responsibility means deleting all traces of the author from their web site?
Soap – your killing me over hear with that tazer fedish of yours!
Total slime bag….as I am reading this I have the sudden urge to take a shower. What a creep!
From Pressto.
But they were relying on someone who was willing to sell out his own guys. Why would they have thought he wouldn’t sell THEM out, if push came to shove?
Bob Owens suspects the Drudge docs were the products of his FOIA request and leaked by the military.
Beauchamp:
Ouch…sounds like he is making some really solid friends in his unit right now.
BrianNY,
It looks like Scott underwent some retraining…it usually involves a blanket some tube socks and some bars of soap…yeah he finally noticed the people to the left and to the right of him. It looks like they all left an impression on him.
This guy can barely put two words together and he wrote the articles?? Call me crazy, but is there any chance his wife wrote them????
Very insightful Michelle. Now I know why Foer and his ilk give more credit to the insurgents’ statements than those of the US Military…because Foer and the insurgents like to fight their battles while hiding behind the skirts of their women.
Conspicuously absent from this comment thread are the assorted left wing commenters and trolls who berated us at the time for “shooting the messenger” and demanding we face up to the “fact” that “George Bush’s illegal war” has turned a generation of fine young men into sociopaths.
lgm? You out there? Any comment?
#32 James…when the facts don’t square with your worldview – you just change the facts. It’s easy.
Mmmmm…Schadenfreudelicious.
It seems that Foer isn’t the only one who likes to fight while hiding behind the nearest skirt…
These two liberal media titans sound like they honed their “street-fighting” skills in Haditha.
Any “feminist” perspective trickling in yet? Maybe Ms. Steinem will be issuing these two media pantloads a onetime pass for leaning heavy on the women of deployed soldiers.
James, LGM is too busy trying to blame Bush and the Republicans with the fires in CA.
However, it would be nice if these trolls would show up and defend their stupid statements. It’s laughable really but that is the liberal way. As I’ve said many times before, being a liberal and a democrap means never having to say you’re sorry or to explain anything for that matter.
#37 – terrig. You do realize that Bush is the most powerful stupid guy on the planet. From what I’m able to tell, he’s too stupid to tie his own shoes but powerful enough to change the weather and be elected president of the most powerful nation on earth not once but twice.
Pretty amazing.
Something is smelly about NRO these days. It’s not the magazine I used to know.
I’m not sure any career heads are going to be rolling at TNR over this.
If Foer et al. decide to emulate Dan Rather’s and Mary Mapes’ “Fake, But Accurate!” rationalization – and remember, both of those two characters still insist that the bogus TANG memos are legit – then the difference between TNR and CBS is that the latter at least has to make a head-fake gesture that it’s a “mainstream” media outlet.
Not so TNR. And its hard-core readership is going to demand that “The Editors” stand up to the Bush-Cheney cabal of right-wingnuts who have “censored” and “coerced” Beauchamp. The transcripts above will bounce off of these people like tennis balls against tank armor.
Or, to borrow a phrase from television program:
“I reject your ‘reality,’ and substitute my own!”
I’m not going to hold my breath for any apologies or resignations or firings at TNR. They’ve dug in this far, why not just keep digging?
One has to wonder if Drudge was the first outlet that received the leaked transcripts. And if Drudge wasn’t the first, then one has to wonder why an established old media outlet like the NY Times, with its recent leak-publishing obsession, declined to publish this.
All of this is a unique look inside the dark soul of the modern left.
Hardly the next Hemingway…
The Next Hemingway? Not so much….
more like…
“The Bum Also Rises”
“A Farewell to Facts”
“Young Man and the B.S.”
“A Moveable Creep”
“The Snowjob of Kilimanjaro”
I’m still stuck on Foer saying “Ellie sent me an e-mail…”. If somebody said that my wife had sent them an e-mail to tell me something, immediately I’d dismiss it cuz my wife and I don’t communicate through third parties.
Foer had to know the calls were being taped and he still acted like a crap weasel. How can anyone in this day and age believe something like that would remain hidden?
And the use of his wife – even if she meant what he said – is just despicable. Imagine being under the pressure Beauchamp was under and getting hit with that.
Foer should be fired and never work in the business again.
Wow. Why can’t these people be prosecuted?
Interesting – when I did a search for both “beauchamp” and “shock troops” at TNR it yielded:
“Your search did not match any documents”
It appears all of the “shock troops diaries” and beauchamp-related pages have been scrubbed at TNR ala the Kos “screw them” entry-hide and Amanda Marcotte’s site housecleaning after she got the (doomed) Edwards gig.
Is this hiding the evidence or does TNR belately now realize they have to fess up and come clean?
It’s not the scandal that’s the problem, it’s the cover up.
Oh…wait…no, it’s the scandal too.
heh
Yet another (but really exceptional) example of Michelle Malkin (and other bloggers) doing the hard, journalistic work that the MSM just can’t (and won’t) do.
Wow. Just wow.
Game over.
I did… not… have… sexual relations with that woman… Miss Lewinsky.
Liars.
Mike OK: Blackfive of Blackfive.net said he saw these documents several weeks ago but didn’t mention them because of violating the privacy act
That would be no future, my “not recommended for re-enlistment” friend.
Yes. That would be ‘in the back of the bus’ with all the other miscrients.
And TNR is owed an appology.
I suggest the following: “We’re sorry you are all a bunch of lying crapweasles.”
Yeah, ask Nixon…
Kathryn Jean Lopez concludes:
“I think we still don’t know the full story.”
If she means what color socks Foer was wearing during the phone calls, she’s right.
But with the release of these documents coupled with TNRs complete scrubbing of any mention of Beauchamp from the entire TNR site, I think we got a mighty good idea of what’s what here.
Also included in TNRs site-wide Beauchamp housecleaning are all of TNR’s indignant “evidence” & “in defense of” stories, postings and responses. Dumped into the TNR memory hole.
Does this scrubbing mean since the whole story is non-operational that Foer and gang are on their way to like status at TNR soon ?
I expect an anouncement to that effect before too long.
The STB story has disappeared, much like TNR’s credability and ethics have.
Unfortunately for TNR, if they intend to hide it, there’s still that naughty Google cache. For example, when TNRs “The Plank” editorial commentary page tried to dispute the Weekly Standard. Gone, but not forgotten -
TNR Plank – Google cache
Somehow I suspect the irony of calling it “The Plank” is probably lost on Foer & co.
Hmm. Think TNR sent Drudge a Cease and Desist order? I can’t imagine him pulling something like that so quickly willingly.
Yeah, this has to be the fastest anything has ever disappeared from the Drudge report. I’ve seen some stories hang around for a week without updates. This only lasted hours.
It certainly looks like somebody’s lawyers got to Matt pronto, doesn’t it?
I hope he’s in no trouble with the Army.
His “flash” page on it is still online, but the files are no longer downloadable.
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash8.htm
I believe the issue with Drudge’s post is Privacy Acts, since I doubt the Amry Reports were released to him, it would be illegal to publish them.
I can’t help but wonder who leaked them, though…
I would suspect that it was STB’s wife, in the hopes of protecting her husband from the crapweasles at TNR.
Foer comes out to blame the army for exposing his dissembling:
TNR’s Foer: Drudge’s Documents Could Have Come Only From the Army
Published: October 24, 2007
Franklin Foer, editor of The New Republic, said in an interview that the documents relating to Scott Thomas Beauchamp that Matt Drudge posted this afternoon–and removed several hours later without explanation–could have only come from the Army.
Full story at:
Observer.Com
I see Michelle just mentioned that last Foer tidbit. Good work!
Funny… The SSG says very plainly that STB can share them.
They. Must. Come. From. STB.
He has to sign a form releasing them. Only him.
Foer: ignorant in how the world works.
The big question then, to me, is why did Foer – if he’s still trying to either push or the story or claiming to be a victim of Beauchamp – scrub TNR of all mention of Beauchamp, the “Shock Troops” entries, the ensuing scandal and his own defenses of Beauchamp and the story? Especially since it seems all the housecleaning was done before Drudge even posted the transcripts.
I should explain my post above. I mean that TNR can only get them if STB says they can have them. He sure didn’t seem motivated to provide them.
I think they DID get them, and someone in house leaked them.
I can see the Army being upset about a Privacy Act violation, if that’s the case. Shame they aren’t that fast or assiduous when dealing with leakers at the Pentagon.
Considering how much more foolish this makes TNR look, I don’t imagine the Army’s too upset.
foer is an idiot, anti-military douchebag who wouldn’t be able to take one week at boot camp.
Earlier poster asked if it seemed crazy to think maybe Beauchamp’s wife wrote the stories. I don’t think that’s crazy. I think things are worse than that. The whole relationship between Beauchamp and his wife seems weird. Did she hook up with him from the beginning with this whole caper in mind? Surely it’s not implausible to guess that these spoiled, clever, starry-eyed liberal sneaks at TNR “sponsored” Beauchamp’s little foray into the military with the express purpose of having him cook up some expose from within, publishing it as a big Scoop and patting each other on the back as their careers took off.
Perhaps they covered for Beauchamp as long as they did because they were conspiring with him from the get-go. And perhaps their I-had-high-SAT-scores little scheme blew up in their incompetent Ivy League faces.
In checking out Instapundit I see where TNR says all of the missing Beauchamp-related pages at TNR is due to a site redesign and they are supposed to be back online with new URLs sometime in the future.
I’ve done a good deal of site design/redesigning myself, so I know how those darn site-redesign gremblins tend to single out pages containing the word “Beauchamp” and have a terrible time in relocating them.
All this maneuvering indicates to me that TNR regards the Beauchamp episode as a 4-month-old embarrassment, especially his last article, which is at odds with most of what TNR has written about the U.S. military. Clearly, the editors were asleep at the switch here and are now engaged in throwing a blanket over their donkey.
Michelle, please pass along to Mark Steyn, for him to pass along to the Aspers, that I would be very willing to travel to TNR’s offices, at my own expense, and deliver their ternimation papers.
But only if I can bring a video camera.
The New Republic began in 1914 I think. It has nurtured several generations of the best political writers in America – even conservative ones.
This is a sad day. There used to be dozens of these little journals – left and right – that looked at issues in depth and featured great analyses of the days events. And brilliant book reviews.
Their readership was small but very influential.
This is the kind of thing that sinks a publication. And even though they deserve to lose their jobs, TNR does not deserve to die. I”ve been reading it for 40 years and would hate to lose it.
Hey Rick… I understand that TNR might be looking for a new Senior Guy…
You should polish up yer CV a lil.