Speaking of corruption and the Democrats, I see The New Republic has taken it in the ear again. and the denizens of The New Republic are well into their “duck and cover” routines. I’m guessing that they are hitting the prayer mats every single night wishing to Gaia this Scott Beauchamp story would go away.
McQ over at Q&O notes Bob Owens,of Confederate Yankee doing an interview with major John Cross who was charged with investigating this Beauchamp affair in Iraq. The Interview is up on PJM. Bob’s conclusions:
– Private Scott Beauchamp did not reveal that he was “Scott Thomas,” author of “Shock Troops,” until he was asked to sign a second sworn statement. It was after he signed this statement that his identity was revealed in The New Republic.
– Major Cross has seen no evidence of any sort of fact checking by The New Republic’s editors prior to publication, a sentiment shared by Army Public Affairs Officers in both Iraq and Kuwait. It is also worth noting that TNR editors have refused to publish PAO statements that contradict their claims.
– Major Cross was unable to find anyone in Beauchamp’s squad, platoon, or company that would corroborate the stories he told in “Shock Troops.”
– Beauchamp was the subject of a second investigation, which found him guilty of violating his unit’s operational security for which he could have been thrown out of the Army.
Personally, I hope they keep them in the army until such time as his enlistment is up… peeling potatoes, if anyone will trust him with the sharp instrument required for the job.
As for The New Republic, Bob Owens says it well:
This is the third time in recent memory that a New Republic writer has been persuasively charged with fabrication. Stephen Glass, who was found to have made up 27 of the 41 articles he wrote for the magazine, is perhaps the most famous case. Glass’ exploits were chronicled in the movie “Shattered Glass.” The Glass incident severely damaged the credibility of the magazine, and should have led to far more stringent editorial standards…it obviously did not.
It is doubtful that editor Franklin Foer and The New Republic deserve yet another chance, and that readers will be as loyal to the magazine as the military has been to Beauchamp.
I guess that last paragraph is a little questionable. After all, their core readership… fellow leftist moonbats… must be considered. It’s as I said to McQ at Q&O... The New Republic IS the left. They are the living, breathing definition of liberal bias in the supposed mainstream media today. The reason that this Beauchamp character was able to get his blathering into the magazine without any significant fact checking is because it matches precisely the leftist, anti-Bush, anti Military, and ultimately anti-American narrative.
As for Foer (pictured here) and company, no worries. Being a leftist means never being affected by fact, and never being ashamed by your own transgressions, particularly of leftist bias and leftist inspired lies.
Think about it, people; Every time the left has been caught in a flat out lie, such as the ones The New Republic has tried to foist off on us, rather than retreating from such lies, it has been taken not as a source of shame, not as a liability, but as a badge of honor. They’re not going to change. Their readership, at least, their core readership, will not be significantly affected in the near term.
But you know, that there is a movement going on, just now . It’s unofficial in nature, but it’s gaining strength. It’s the same of what I refer to last night as regards the testimony of General Petraeus.
What I am suggesting here, is that in the short term there are no forseeable issues for TNR However, in the longer term, there is a serious backlash against the left coming. The line has finally been crossed and even those on the moderate left are getting angry at the excesses of the rabid left. TNR is only a part of that. The lies and abuses coming from that paper, and those being directed at the General last night are of a kind. the responses to both those situations will also be of a kind.
Tags: BitsBlog, Corruption, Democrats, WHAT biased press?
