Monday, September 10, 2007

"Shock Troops:" Driving the final nails in the coffin

Today, the last two nails in the coffin for TNR's credibility were driven home.

At Hotair, Michelle Malkin interviews Michael Goldfarb, online editor for The Weekly Standard. Fair and balanced to the core, Michelle also attempted to interview TNR's Franklin Foer, but ran into a little resistance.

At Pajamas Media, Confederate Yankee's Bob Owens publishes an exclusive interview with Major John Cross, US Army. MAJ Cross conducted the Army's investigation into the veracity of PVT Scott Thomas Beauchamp's now infamous article, "Shock Troops."

The New Republic's credibility was already in a bad state of repair following the Stephen Glass debacle. As Bob points out, that should have led to a much more rigorous editorial policy at the very leftwing publication. Sadly, it has not. Owens gets a lot of credit for good old fashioned journalism--he checked facts when TNR's editors covered them up. He interviewed credible sources when TNR jinned up their comments. With these two pieces today, one wonders about the future of the TNR editorial staff.