The New York Times and the Washington Post are running full stories on the Affaire de Beauchamp today.
First, The New York Times:
Army Says Soldier’s Articles for Magazine Were False
An Army investigation into the Baghdad Diarist, a soldier in Iraq who wrote anonymous columns for The New Republic, has concluded that the sometimes shockingly cruel reports were false.
“We are not going into the details of the investigation,” Maj. Steven F. Lamb, deputy public affairs officer in Baghdad, wrote in an e-mail message. “The allegations are false, his platoon and company were interviewed, and no one could substantiate the claims he made.”
I won’t quote any more except this last bit because the Times reporter creates an incredible gap in logic for TNR to sneak through unless you are in possession of a single brain cell.
In an e-mail message, Mr. Foer said, “Thus far, we’ve been provided no evidence that contradicts our original statement, despite directly asking the military for any such evidence it might have,” adding, “We hope the military will share what it has learned so that we can resolve this discrepancy.”
Mr. Foer, meet the door. You are done.
Howard Kurtz at The Washington Post provides, outside of the headline, a wonderfully misconstrued spin on the story…
Army Concludes Baghdad Diarist Accounts Untrue
And, I’m going to go a little beyond fair use on this one because there is just too much wishful thinking and complete bullshit for anyone who has followed this at all in this article — read for yourself.
Army investigators have concluded that the private whose dispatches for the New Republic accused his fellow soldiers of petty cruelties in Iraq was not telling the truth.
The finding, disclosed yesterday, came days after the Washington-based magazine announced that it had corroborated the claims of the private, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, except for one significant error.
“An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by Pvt. Beauchamp were found to be false,” an Army statement said. “His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims.”
But New Republic Editor Franklin Foer is standing his ground. “We’ve talked to military personnel directly involved in the events that Scott Thomas Beauchamp described, and they corroborated his account,” Foer said. The magazine granted anonymity to the other soldiers it cited.
A military official, who asked not to be identified because the probe is confidential, said no charges were filed against Beauchamp. Instead, the official said, the matter is being handled administratively, with Beauchamp punished by having his cellphone and laptop confiscated for an undetermined period.
I espescially love this next bit.
The Army probe provides ammunition to conservative critics who have accused the liberal magazine of publishing Beauchamp’s “Baghdad Diarist” essays without adequate checking and being too quick to believe that American soldiers would engage in questionable conduct. It also revives fading memories of the magazine’s 1998 fabrication scandal involving writer Stephen Glass.
No. Really.
They actually do a little reporting here…
Beauchamp, 23, who is married to New Republic reporter Elspeth Reeve, wrote last month that a soldier had used a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to run over stray dogs, and that others had found and played with the skulls of Iraqi children. Beauchamp also wrote that he and other soldiers had openly mocked a woman whose face had been disfigured by an injury — but later acknowledged the incident had taken place in Kuwait before his unit was deployed, not at a Baghdad base as he originally maintained.
But, and get this, where outside the teeny tiny (the only thing that matters) world of grad school journalism majors would this next bit make any sense?
Foer said last week that the Army investigation was “short-circuiting” the magazine’s efforts, in part because it had become impossible to reach Beauchamp.
Skipping a bit…
“Thus far,” he added, “we’ve been provided no evidence that contradicts our original statement, despite directly asking the military for any such evidence it might have.”
Despite the fact that many other individuals and outlets that have been following this from the beginning have had no problem getting access to information that makes that statement and the reporting of it — ridiculous.
Get ready for an incredible leap in logic that has no basis in any sort of fact…
It is not clear whether investigators might have pressured Beauchamp into disavowing the articles by indicating that charges might otherwise be filed against him under the military justice code. A military official said Beauchamp had committed two violations, making false statements and not obtaining permission to publish the articles, which were written under the name Scott Thomas.
Pressured. With what? The truth?
Just to add complete balance to the story, we need to go to a journalism professor to be told what we should think about all of this…
Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at George Washington University, called the Army’s refusal to release its report “suspect,” adding: “There is a cloud over the New Republic, but there’s one hanging over the Army, as well. Each investigated this and cleared themselves, but they both have vested interests.”
A cloud — vested interests. The Army didn’t fabricate a story. Beauchamp did — and then passed it on to TNR who bought it all and then published wild claims of horrible behavior without any real kind of fact checking. Their own claims of plausibility and passing the “smell test” have already been refuted and ridiculed — everywhere. There was no fact checking — at all.
Scott Thomas Beauchamp is married to New Republic reporter Elspeth Reeve. He went to Iraq to “get street cred” as a writer with battleground experience according to his own blog. He went into the Army with an agenda that he made known to the world, which is most likely the reason he was still an E-2 after two years. I’m sure he touched E-3 for a few moments, but that was short lived as he made everyone around him miserable to the point where he most surely has faced administrative punishment — the “genius” Scott Thomas Beuchamp most certainly would have made at least NCO at this point had he not been “misunderstood” and unfairly judged by the unfair expectations that the Army places on a soldier of actually fulfilling the obligations that it expects of it’s less sensitive and duty bound soldiers.
I truly wish this idiot would have enlisted in the Marines. Not a slam on the Army, but the Marines have a way of weeding shitbirds like this out before they can cause any kind of trouble.
Heavy responsibility is given at lower rank in the Marines. Judgement of the ability to carry that responsibility is also qualified swiftly.
At the end of the day — Beauchamp is a proven liar and fabricator. TNR and Franklin Foer are either hapless fools or wishfull idiots. Which is worse?
Elspeth Reeve — I hope upon hope that you were not a willful participant in this. You married a liar and a traitor. If you were, I wish you and Scotty boy a miserable life on the nutroot circuit trying to pick up the pieces of Shattered Glass.
Find more and background at:
Hot Air
Michelle Malkin
Confederate Yankee
And, Ace was on this the entire way
Michael Goldberg led the way though, at The Weekly Standard. Great work.
Addendum: I wrote this up in the wee hours of the night as the information came out so the links I’ve provided may be a little behind. This will certainly have comprehensive coverage over the next several hours. I will update and link appropriately.
Not used to being ahead of the curve.
Update: Oh noes — a link from Scott Thomas himself. With a little poem.
I love the smell of vindication in the morning
I’m slicker than Clinton
Smarter than Gore
I’ve turned the Media
Into my whore
Blogs covering this today:
Michelle Malkin — Winter Soldier Syndrome
Power Line — What War Did To The New Republic
Ace of Spades HQ — MSM: We Support Our Winter Soldiers
Confederate Yankee — Deceiver
