And now for some shoddy war reporting…from an NRO milblogger
Update: Kathryn Lopez has more details about the chronology and reports that NRO is “taking a look at the Smith archive and will give you a full assessment in the coming days because we owe that to our readers.”
Good.
***
Ugh. This is bad on many levels. W. Thomas Smith, Jr., a former Marine and milblogger who writes at National Review Online’s The Tank (and whose work in Iraq I’ve praised and linked to here), posts a long-winded defense of bogus, shoddy reporting he published while he was in Lebanon earlier this fall. It’s painful to read because he takes nearly 1,400 words to get to the main points:
1) He claimed he had seen “some 200-plus heavily armed Hezbollah militiamen” at a “sprawling Hezbollah tent city” when, in fact, he hadn’t seen 200-plus heavily armed Hezbollah militiamen.
2) He reported that 4,000-5,000 Hezbollah gunmen had been “deployed to the Christian areas of Beirut in an unsettling ‘show of force,’” when, in fact, there is no evidence that a deployment of 4,000-5,000 Hezbollah gunmen to Christian areas of Beirut ever took place.
As you read the explanation, ask yourselves this: If Thomas Beauchamp had written it instead of Thomas Smith, would you buy it?
Kathryn Lopez, to her credit, immediately* disclosed (see update above) the controversy to readers. Contrary to the TNR editors, she thanked the reporter who first questioned Smith’s account, instead of trashing critics. Writes Lopez:
Bottom line: NRO strives to bring you reliable analysis and reporting — whether in presenting articles, essays, or blog posts. Smith did commendable work in Lebanon earlier this year, as he does from S.C. where he is based, as he has done from Iraq, where he has been twice. But rereading some of the posts (see “The Tank” for more detail) and after doing a thorough investigation of some of the points made in some of those posts, I’ve come to the conclusion that NRO should have provided readers with more context and caveats in some posts from Lebanon this fall. And so I apologize to you, our readers.
I thank Smith for his good, brave work. He’s a smart, reliable reporter with a great patriotic spirit and sense of service. We owe him and our readers better — we should have gotten you more context and information before a post or two went live. It’s understandable how it happened — the nature of blogging being what it is — but given what an underreported tinderbox we’re talking about, especially, we owed you more. We weren’t blogging about Dancing with the Stars there.
So I’m grateful to the reporter who contacted Smith with questions. He brought them to my attention. We did due diligence. We’ve reported this back to him. And now we’re reporting back to you.
The problem is that “more context” and “caveats” aren’t what was needed. Just the facts would have sufficed. Smith’s work in those posts was not “good” or “brave.” And “the nature of blogging” doesn’t excuse the phenomenal errors. Given Smith’s admissions, “reliable” is not a word that should attach to his Lebanon reporting.
We are all fallible. We all make mistakes. But these were not small mistakes. They were XXL ones.
Moreover, online journalists and bloggers can’t have it both ways: They can’t ask for mainstream media parity when their reporting is dead-on and ahead-of-the-curve–and at the same time hide behind the “well, I was just blogging” excuse if their reporting turns out to be as ill-sourced and wrong-headed as the legacy media’s. Also note: In one of the tainted posts, the headline isn’t “Blogging from Lebanon.” It’s “Reporting from Lebanon.”
The nutroots are having a field day. And yes, points like this one made in the Huffington Post are going to sting:
Smith wrote at least five posts in September and October on The Tank attacking the Beauchamp stories, including the following comments: “It would have been virtually impossible for the things Beauchamp said happened to have played out the way he says they did” on September 10; and “Scott Thomas Beauchamp was either a fictitious character or a liar” on October 27.
An American journalist in Lebanon piles on. And you can be sure this story will get tons more coverage on the left side of the blogosphere in the next few days than the TNR debacle has gotten over the last five months. The liberal media will prop up this case to blunt criticism of TNR’s handling of the Beauchamp scandal. They’ll ignore the fundamental difference in how the two magazines have handled their respective situations. They’ll ignore the slander and the cover-up at TNR, and comfort themselves with a blanket of false moral equivalence.
The worst aspect of the case, however, is that it will give cover to Hezbollah-sympathizing media propagandists and their puppet masters–the fauxtographers, the ambulance manipulators, and the evil-enabling stage managers of the Theater of Jihad.
We must fight the propagandists with incontrovertible truth, not more propaganda.
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- Captain's Quarters
- Flopping Aces
- Bipartisan Fabulism « Bilby’s
- Right Wing Nut House » NRO SHOULD FIRE THOMAS SMITH FOR HIS LEBANON FABLES
- Shoddy Reporting - It's Not Just for the Left : Weblogs
- Macsmind - Blog of The MacRanger Show!
- Macsmind - Blog of The MacRanger Show!
- Shoddy reporting on both sides… and the difference… | BitsBlog
- Ed Driscoll.com
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- W. Thomas Smith « Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper
- Shoddy Reporting - It’s Not Just for the Left · New York Articles
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Categories: Fauxtography, Hezbollah, Scott Thomas Beauchamp
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Hey Michelle, not everyone can be succinct, erudite and entertaining.
My parents drove many lessons and points into me As I grew up. One of the many points they drove home has always proved to be true…BE SURE YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT.
The positive side to this mess is that it doesn’t take weeks to ferret out the truth and get it out.
Thanks for reporting this Michelle. One thing I have learned if the baby is ugly it is best to just come out and say it. The one difference between the loons on the left and conservatives is the left will defend their players no matter how out there the position is they are defending. We tend to hold our players accountable for their actions. I do not approve or condone manufacturing news especially in this volatile part of the world. Hezbollah propagandists like “Green Helmet Guy” are bad enough to put up with, but Mr. Smith has provided legitimacy to their tactics and significantly damaged his credibility. This is going to leave a mark and stain on NROs credibility too. We all make mistakes and it is best to identify them, take credit for them, learn from them, and move on. Honesty is the best policy no matter how much it hurts.
This is a fight that will never end with the liberal media, But I’m sure glad to have Michelle out there looking out for all of us. THANK YOU MICHELLE !
It still baffles me that people hang on every word of some of the BS coming out from sources with 1/10th the knowledge General Petraeus has and they flung him overboard like a bucket of chum.
If a Cedar falls in the forest, and Hez does not get reporters there to hear it… did it happen?
Do you really believe that Hez, not only plants stories, but controls where reporters go? That they have a story they want told… and will use people to dismiss as quacks anyone who does not go along with the party line.
The good Marines only sin was in not differentiating between what he had seen, and what he was told… but then again, we see the MSM do this all the time… and flat out lie about it.
OT-
Anyone hearing anything from Venezoolo?
ajmontana…they say on fox it should be very close.
Not the best time for this kind of thing to happen. Errors in stories is natural.
Manufacture of stories is bogus.
Hopefully we’ll see the difference between NRO and TNR in their immediate transparency instead of backtracking and covering this up.
It throws doubt on any of his other reporting as well. NRO should immediately cut Smith, Jr.
Freedom of movement there (Lebanon) is essentially non-existent for most Catholics. Solid news is very hard to come by.
One thing that facinates me about the media is how they go about checking the facts. This site is a good example of how to fact check the story before you go off the deep end, I’ve been reading this blog for some time now and I’ve noticed if Michelle does’nt have all the fact’s about a story she alway’s qualifies it, telling her reader’s that the story is incomplete and waiting for more facts to prove or disprove the validity of the story “Will monitor it.” Another thing that impresses me about Michelle is she does’nt take all the credit if she had help by the blogger’s on this site she give’s us credit for it. (you know who you are.) CYA at all times because if the shark’s are in the tank and they smell blood you can bet they’ll eat you alive. Look at all the examples of shody fact checking, and you’ll notice most of these people no longer have their job’s. It is my distinct honor and privelage to be allowed to comment on this site. Thank’s Michelle and Rick.
ty Twiggman.
Mistakes? Mis-states? How about just plain outright lies!
MM asked:
The “facts” at issue are of a different kind. For Beauchamp: did or did not some soldiers run over a dog on purpose and make fun of a disfigured woman? These are (relatively) minor things that (like it or not) happen at home. Beauchamp is poignant but hardly changes our picture of Iraq.
Smith lied about the big picture, for example:
O’Reilly and the attack on Christman notwithstanding, there are not armies of Muslim gunmen occupying Christian neighborhoods at home. And, it turns out, not in Lebanon either.
Bottom line: Smith’s lie was much worse than Beauchamp’s.
A lie is a lie no matter how “accurate” it may appear to be. I think the big difference is the ability and even desire of those on the right side of the issues is to hold ourselves and others personally responsible for their actions. If retractions and corrections are already being sent out (With the proper date even? See TNR 12-10) than that already speaks volumes for the truth to be told in this instance. Still, for either to ever receive credit, much less compensation for being a “reporter” would be disturbing. Unfortunately, in some instances, I think the perpetrators will be held out as heroes while we (rightfully) hold “ours” accountable.
When did O’Reilly say there were Muslim gunmen occupying Christian neighborhoods at home?
Not necessarily true. There is a tent camp in downtown Beirut, and it can turn into a threat. There have been six assassinations in the past two years alone, and most in Lebanon think it’s the Syrian-backed Hezbollah that’s responsible. Most recent was a Christian leader that was assassinated back in September of this year.
AND…from the New York Times today:
“Hezbollah demonstrators have been living in a tent encampment in downtown Beirut for a year, contributing to an atmosphere of tension that has driven the prime minister and dozens of other lawmakers to become virtual prisoners in their offices out of fear for their safety.”
Still think the tent city in the middle of Beirut isn’t a threat?
Hardly.
This incident, or whatever one wishes to label it, is a disgrace and must be admitted and condemned without equivocation as such. The damage done will be huge — remember always: a speeding ticket on the Right is perceived as far worse than vehicular homicide on the Left. That is the nature of the times we live in. It’s their country; we just live here.
As an aside, I have never liked NRO and never once even visited the “Tank,” whatever that refers to. I occasionally visit the “Corner” for Mark Steyn’s comments but the rest are, IMHO, a bunch of know-it-all, self-centered, bores. It is hard to know which of them is the worst, but if you haven’t, please check it out for yourself. I would never deny anyone the pleasure of reading Jonah Goldberg’s, for example, incredibly witty and oh-so informative comments on “Star Trak.”
As a self-satire of the intellectual decline of Conservatism, it may well be impossible to beat.
Unlike the Left’s reaction to Scotty-boy, I don’t think anyone on the Right will defend shoddy and unscrupulous work. To the Left, lying is okay if the goal is noble. To the Right, lying is immoral and indefensible, without regard to the goal. And to the extent that these statements are not true, I will attack anyone on the Right who lies to me, while I maintain the need to read the claptrap on the Left is insignificant.
Lets see…
Tent city exists? yes…
Author saw guns?… check…
Tent city is Hez? … no question…
Tent city could easily contain 200? yes…
NO ONE in Lebanon is without weapons… eh.. yep…
So, just where is the BIG LIE?
Hmmm… as for the other, he reported what he had been TOLD by what he considered a reliable source… should he have sourced it better? yes…
Is it a huge lie? Don’t know…
Did it happen??? I can’t say, there is a LOT of things going on the press never gets wind of… to say that NO other reporter heard of it, so therefore it must not be true? Come on…
Just because a blatantly Lebanese Partisan says its a lie… does not necesarily make it one.
Wow Michelle, you are right on this issue on so many levels. How can we on the right imagine that we can hold the left accountable for things that we ourselves are guilty of?
My answer, the only sane and rational answer is, exactly as you have done, by pulling no punches and giving no quarter.
More importantly is as you have pointed out, the disparity of responses between the right and left. We (and by we I actually mean you) on the right have outed our own and are holding them to the exact same standard of integrity that we demand of the left, nay I say an even higher standard.
We will not apologize for nor cover up the abuses of integrity of our own, we will hold them accountable regardless of the consequences, we will do the right thing.
The greatest tragedy of this incident isn’t that someone on the right played fast and loose with the facts, but that the left will learn no lesson from our handling of this issue other than that they can smear our integrity.
I am a frequent reader of The Tank over at NRO. I subscribe to their magazine.
I will try to keep this in the proper perspective; however, one bad apple does spoil the bunch. I now call into question everything I have read of his over the past year or so.
People who are otherwise intelligent folks, struggle with putting forth a simple apology.
OT: Hey Boomer did you catch the OU game last night? Go Sooners!
Apparently Smith is also the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design.” That should have been a warning sign to the NRO right there. I’m guessing that the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Intelligent design comes as a pamphlet.
I’d imagine that anyone whose worldview includes belief in intelligent design to the exclusion of evolution would have a great deal of difficulty wrapping their mind around the complex state of affairs in Lebanon. Perhaps Smith couldn’t help himself when it came to filing fake reports from Beirut. It doesn’t sound like he has much of a grasp of reality versus imagination to begin with.
Romeo:
The chances of “200 heavily armed men” being in the tent city are nil. The Lebanese Army would be shooting at them if that were true. There are probably some weapons – security for high ranking Hiz big shots. But the government has promised to stay out of the square as long as Hiz doesn’t threaten violence. For a year, that’s been the situation.
And trust me – Lebanon would have exploded if 4,000 armed Shias had gone into Christian Beirut. It’s not possible. About a dozen unarmed Shia kids tried to barricade the road to the airport in Christian Beirut last January and riots erupted.
Just not plausible…
Rick is right. Tent city – sure. A tent city full of Hezbollah supporting demonstrators is plausible. That they are also gunmen is not.
30 pieces of silver nope missed the game completely we are Idaho people, but not really big sports fans. I do know a couple of folks that are die hard Sooners fans they will be happy about last nights game 38-17 against Missouri is pretty good.
What really amazes me about the left is their complete lack of knowledge of history and the false and misleading information they spew.
The situation in Lebanon is very fragile, and they refuse to acknowledge that right now, anything is possible.
Having a tent city in the middle of Beirut is not “normal”.
I guess all those assassinations in the past 24 months were “nothing” too.
Hezbollah is a terrorist organization which is a major threat to Lebanon, and has been for a long time. It thrives on the poor, less educated and the weak mainly in the south.
I’d say that ex-Marine is due for a good blanket party.
I’d say that the ex-Marine is a little bit old for a blanket party, don’t you think?
I wish he’d been a bit more contrite in his post explaining what happened at The Tank. His “confession” or acknowledgment is in fact no better than anything we’ve gotten out of TNR to date. In fact, the only thing superior about his and NRO’s handling of this matter is that they have, to their great credit, responded in a timely fashion. Otherwise, Smith and KLo sound like they are playing the same games that the liberals over at TNR have been playing for months. I guess our side simply learns faster. Embarrassing.
Wow, has everyone read his story about the “acid weapon”? http://www.back-to-iraq.com/2007/12/i-wanna-cover-this-guys-lebano.php
That’s the first time I’ve heard of an “acid weapon.” Why on earth would anyone try to deploy an “acid weapon”?
Damnit michelle why don’t you ever criticize the right? (sarcasm)
Obfuscationist LGM sets in motion who’s worse?
Who cares. MM lays it out. Discuss the quote from MM above with us, Lgm. Stay on the main point.
I would go so far as to say the reporters and their editors should be tried. And a determination should be made as to their a) intentions; and b) to what extent did they aid and abet the enemy.
In the original post-confession thread on Foer, I said there should be an in-depth “Year in Review” write up on this kind of treasonous crap which abuses the first ammendment.
What do you think about MM’s quote, lgm? It states the problem well and clearly. What do you think about that?
On a related note: notice how liberal moon loon trolls on this blog always slice off a minute piece of the news and focus on some kind of patty-cake dimension of it.
THAT is total horsecrap.
Michelle:
You probably know Kathryn-Jean Lopez at NRO. If so it would probably be a good idea to find out whether or not she was indeed notified about Smith’s inaccuracies six weeks ago. I’ll bet she wasn’t notified. Albritton sounds like a liar-type. http://tinyurl.com/38ndcq
Kathryn-Jean Lopez is now saying that Smith was “confused” about what he saw and was reporting on in Beirut:
http://tinyurl.com/37rmz8
This seems to me like she is attempting to excuse his behavior like a child.
The highly respected journalist Mitchell Prothero who has covered Lebanon for years sent an email to Lopez 6 weeks ago detailing the laughable exaggerations by Smith.
She apparently ignored the email and only responded when a reporter from a still unamed outlet began to ask questions.
Ther’s more to this story than meets the eye and I think when all is said and done, Lopez, Smith, and NRO are not going to look very good.
Also, David Kenner sent an email to Smith about the same time asking for verification of some of the more outrageous statements he made.
Now there’s talk that KLo should resign? Before the Beauchamp/TNR situation I would have thought a resignation was excessive, but now it sounds like the right thing to do. JLo’s done a lot for the conservative movement, and there’s no reason that she can’t do a great deal more, but she’s an albatross around NRO’s neck. Let’s teach the left a lesson about how we police our own. Goodbye, KLo, we hardly knew ye.
Too bad the left won’t do the same. But then again, we wouldn’t have any MSM media left if they did. No more ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, PBS, NY Times, Time Magazines, Newsweek, etc…
Just look how long it took for Dan Rather (Biased) to go away.
MM has some details of the comparison wrong. Smith is a staff reporter of NRO. Calling him “milblogger” seems to imply otherwise. On the other hand, Beauchamp actually was a milblogger.
More commentary here:
Let’s not go off the deep end here, the question is did he completely make stuff up (Beauchamp) or did he get duped by what he believed to be reliable sources….’cuz we all know THAT never happens.
lgm
What he did was worse than Beauchamp??? Did I actually read this??? I mean Beauchamp only made American soldiers look bad, it’s not like he made…you know..TERRORISTS look bad.
I’m all for getting the facts about this but let’s not over-react.
Old Tanker (#41) makes my point perfectly:
In other words, false reporting is fine as long as it makes the people you don’t like look bad. That’s why conservative blogosphere went crazy over Beauchamp but still hasn’t proven his stuff false, while Smith’s reporting was known by experts to be false the day it was reported.
Next question: why is Senator Craig’s marital infidelity worse than that of Senator Vitter or Mayor Giulaini? Answer: because at least Vitter and Giulaini are straigt.
Much ado about nothing – if you don’t know of the Arab tendency to like like the Dickens about your enemy, then you are certainly ignorant and probably have no interest in the Middle East.
lgm
did you read the 1st part of what I wrote?? You claim that making terrorists look bad is WORSE than making American soldiers look bad. At worst we can claim that the two were EQUAL in bad journalism. THAT is the point I was making.
I’m going to make the assumption that you see the 2 as equal here, and I would agree. But you claim making false accusations against American troops is not as bad as making them against terrorists…..did I miss something?
It seems to me that 5,000 militia men would be an easier fact to verify than a single disfigured woman or a dead dog. Point being – this really calls into question who – anyone?- at the NRO is checking facts.
BTW, Andrew Sullivan has evidence in the form of an e-mail that the NRO knew Smith was full of it as early as October 5, so it’s more than a bit disingenuous of K-Lo to claim she disclosed the facts “immediately”, after learning of the errors “deep into the 2nd week of November.”
So much for the claiming the mantle of moral superiorty on this one. There are liars, propagandists, and flat-out jerks on BOTH sides of the “culture war.” Now can we please all acknowledge this simple fact and stop with the finger wagging and self-righteous preening at every possible step? It’s not helping anyone.
Huggybear,
The NRO email system is notoriously unreliable, as multiple people have testified, and Lopez has acknowledged. Just because someone sent an email does not indicate that the recipient actually saw the email. Lopez has acknowledged that people claim to have sent her emails, but has said she never saw them.
Incidently, have you ever bothered to read Smith’s original pieces and his explanation? After a little bit of thought I think I am more worried about his “200 armed men” bit, which is clearly an exaggeration (what he should have said was “we passed a lot of men, two of which were holding AK-47s, with probably more hidden away, according to my local sources.”), then the 4000-5000 men bit, in which he should have said “I say several groups of Hezbollah were they shouldn’t have been, and a number of local sources say that there were 4-5000 men in such groups spread out over the entire city.” 5000 men ARE easier to miss if they are in small groups and spread over a city, which is what Smith actually reported. All in all, I think Smith should go, but he looks more like a sloppy journalist who trusted his sources to far than a fabulist.
For all you conservatives, hanging a friend out to dry just because you wish to be seen as impartial is not honesty. Figure out what happened FIRST, then call for appropriate measures, OK?
Do you unsuccessfully speed read or something? You totally missed the point of that statement, which was the sarcastic remark that Beauchamp was more interested in making up stories about U.S. soldiers than reporting about terrorists. We can only assume that he would lie about them as well, but didn’t seem to have an axe to grind with the enemy. I believe that there was a long rambling admission by the editors, and an effective pleading of the Fifth Amendment by Beauchamp, that proved the falsity of his claims.
Here is a better question: why was Trent Lott’s statement about Strom Thurmond (to a private audience) worse than Chris Dodd’s statement about Robert Byrd (publicly to the full Senate)?
Answer: Dodd is a liberal Democrat. And a fairly corrupt one at that. Dems reward their bad seeds, Republicans cast their’s out.