"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.

Pajamas Media: How The New Republic Got Suckered

Pajamas Media: How The New Republic Got Suckered

When Pajamas Media heard the authenticity questions surrounding the “Baghdad Diarist” articles by Scott Thomas Beauchamp in The New Republic, we asked our Washington Editor Richard Miniter to look into how the respected opinion magazine could once again be the locus of such a scandal.

Miniter spoke with several people involved in the extraordinary story, including the whistle-blower and a German woman who was Beauchamp’s fiancée until just before he married, of all people, Miniter discovered, a fact-checker at The New Republic. That fiancée said of her former boyfriend, the soldier/reporter: “He hates the army. The only reason he joined was because he wanted to have more experience to write about.”

Pajamas Media says they welcome a response from The New Republic. I won't be holding my breath.