Don’t Beauchamp that joint, part 2

Whoever wrote the heading for Charles Krauthammer’s column today succinctly observes regarding the New Republic’s Baghdad Diarist that “Stephen Glass goes to war.” In his column Krauthammer concludes, in other words, that Scott Thomas Beauchamp is a fabulist.
But what about the New Republic? As “the editors” of TNR have dug in and stood by their fabulist on the ground in Iraq, they have made the magazine a laughingstock. Bob Owens double checks a significant part of the post-publication verification of Beauchamp’s Bagdhad Diarist column by “the editors” and discovers why their notes and statements standing by Beauchamp’s story have persuaded no one but themselves.
At the City Center complex in downtown Minneapolis, the fire alarm occasionally goes off accidentally. When it does so, City Center security staff deactivates the alarm and announces that “the alarm has been verified as false.” Despite their protestations to the contrary, “the editors” appear to have verified Beauchamp’s story in roughly that sense.

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