It's the coverup that kills you, part 3
It’s been another week without word from the New Republic on the status of its "investigation" into the columns of TNR Baghdad Diarist Scott Thomas Beauchamp. "The editors" have not spoken on the matter since their August 10 update. At that time "the editors" spoke grandly of their "commitment to the truth" and their efforts to resolve the "legitimate concerns about journalistic accuracy" that had been raised by the critics of Beauchamp's TNR Baghdad Diarist columns. They also said they took those concerns "extremely seriously."
Ten weeks later, however, their promises have proved empty. "The editors" think they can stonewall their way through the scandal. They should know better. Indeed, as we will see below, once upon a time TNR editor Franklin Foer instructed readers in the wisdom of the proposition that "stonewalling never works."
We now know that TNR editor Franklin Foer and executive editor Peter Scoblic spoke with Scott Beauchamp on September 7. Dogged blogger Bob Owens learned of the call from an Army spokesman. Why have "the editors" not disclosed the substance of their conversation with Beauchamp?
In their conversation with Beauchamp, Beauchamp must not have provided Foer and Scoblic a single fact with which to substantiate his "Shock troops" column. Six weeks after speaking with Beauchamp "the editors" have not addressed the report that Beauchamp recanted his column in the course of the Army investigation of its allegations. And commanding officer Colonel Ricky Gibbs has since confirmed that report.
In their September 7 phone call with Beauchamp, Foer and Scoblic asked their author to cancel interviews he had scheduled with the Washington Post and Newsweek. Again, they seem to think that stonewalling will allow them to ride out the scandal. They must be counting on the kindness of their friends in the MSM to cooperate. And to date their confidence has not been disappointed.
Upon taking the reins of TNR, editor Franklin Foer declared: “My priority is to put out the most intellectually provocative, intellectually honest magazine possible.” Foer's aspiration for TNR now reads like a piece of black humor.
In his March 2001 essay for TNR -- “In defense of conventional wisdom” -- Foer paid tribute both to the prescience and integrity of David Gergen. (Jonah Goldberg devoted an interesting column to Foer's essay.) Foer wrote of Gergen:
[I]t's not just his analyses--Gergen's moral impulses are also impeccable. During his stint as Clinton's all-purpose guru from 1993 to 1994, Gergen, arguing the conventional wisdom that stonewalling never works, implored the president to allow Washington Post reporters to peruse all the documents pertaining to Whitewater. If Clinton had heeded Gergen, the press likely would have seen how picayune the Republican complaints truly were, and the scandal would have faded. In addition, Gergen tried to steer Clinton away from the more liberal policies that alienated white men (e.g., Hillarycare) and toward the centrist politics that characterized Clinton's more successful second term (e.g., welfare reform). His post-White House punditry is nearly as impressive. In seemingly every TV appearance he condemns "the politics of personal destruction" and calls for politicians to act like statesmen. Who can argue with that?"The editors" have resorted to stonewalling because disclosure at this late date would not cause the scandal to fade. "The editors" have taken the personal scandal of Scott Thomas Beuachamp and turned it into an institutional debacle. Disclosure would thus only amplify it. To quote Foer, "Who can argue with that?"
