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August 20, 2007
Transparency And The Media: Good Leak/Bad Leak?
In a must-read interview, Richard Miniter talks with The New Republic's inside leaker, Robert McGee (interestingly, a gay conservative who was fired by TNR for revealing Beauchamp's marriage to staffer Elspeth Reeve) and Beauchamp's former fiancee Priscilla. The article contains several fascinating revelations, among them the fact that Ms. Reeve was not just a staffer but one of TNR's three fact checkers. Miniter looks at TNR's "re-reporting" process:
How good was the magazine’s after-the-fact fact-checking of Beauchamp’s articles?Not very. Consider this post from “Confederate Yankee,” one of the most effective watch dogs on this story.
The blogger found one of the “corroborating experts” that The New Republic spoke to in the course of its follow-up investigation. A spokesman for the maker of Bradley Fighting Vehicle told Confederate Yankee the he been contacted by an unnamed male fact-checker from the magazine. It would appear that the fact-checker kept his questions at a very non-specific level, possibly to solicit a stronger-sounding corroboration. The unnamed fact-checker searching for some rhetorical cover—it might be possible for a Bradley to do some of things Beauchamp described—rather than probe for uncomfortable truths.
When provided with the actual text of Beauchamp's article and asked for a response, the same spokesman at Bradley gave this response:
I can't pretend to know what may or may not have happened in Iraq but the impression the writer leaves is that a "driver" can go on joy rides with a 35 ton vehicle at will. The vehicle has a crew and a commander of the vehicle who is in charge. In order for the scenario described to have taken place, there would have to have been collaboration by the entire crew.The driver's vision, even if sitting in an open hatch is severely restricted along the sides. He sits forward on the left side of the vehicle. His vision is significantly impaired along the right side of the vehicle which makes the account to "suddenly swerve to the right" and actually catch an animal suspect. If you were to attempt the same feat in your car, it would be very difficult and you have the benefit of side mirrors.
Anyone familiar with tracked vehicles knows that turning sharply requires the road wheels on the side of the turn to either stop or reverse as the road wheels on the opposite side accelerates. What may not be obvious is that the track once on the ground, doesn't move. The road wheels roll across it but the track itself is stationary until it is pushed forward by the road wheels.
The width of the track makes it highly unlikely that running over a dog would leave two intact parts. One half of the dog would have to be completely crushed.
It also seems suspicious that a driver could go on repeated joy rides or purposefully run into things. Less a risk to the track though that is certainly possible but there is sensitive equipment on the top of the vehicle, antennas, sights, TOW missile launcher, commander and if it was a newer vehicle, the commander's independent viewer, not to mention the main gun. Strange things are known to happen in a combat environment but I can't imagine that the vehicle commander or the unit commander would tolerate repeated misuse of the vehicle, especially any action that could damage its ability to engage.
Quite a different answer. There seems to have been a deliberate attempt by TNR to cover for some less than rigorous fact checking and it is interesting that when one of their own employees became uncomfortable with their stonewalling and did as the media have so often encouraged government employees to do (i.e., went public with the story) their response was to fire him and attempt to prevent him from further contact with the public:
An attack on McGee in the Huffington Post outed the former publisher’s assistant as gay.“It was funny, making an attack that was pointless. Actually, doubly pointless — not only is my homosexuality a complete non-secret, but in any case, the factual claim that I’d made about Elle’s [Elspeth Reeve’s] link to STB [Scott Thomas Beauchamp] had already been publicly confirmed by The New Republic. Also, I think it’s worth pointing out that [the author] was clearly attempting to ‘out’ me not as merely gay, but as a ‘gay conservative.’ In other words, someone who ought to have no credibility on either the left (because of my self-loathing politics) or on the right (because of my unbiblical fondness for cock).”
Funny, how the anti-gay attacks now come from left field.
McGee has been out since college—and noted that few on the Right had raised any issues about his interest in men. He sometimes openly mentioned it on posts on Little Green Footballs. “No one ever made a big deal out of it,” he says, until the Huffington Post did.
Still, McGee isn’t bitter. He thinks he did the right thing and has plenty of good references from prior temp jobs to get a new gig. His interview with PajamasMedia.com was his first and his last. He just got a cease-and-desist order from The New Republic; he won’t be doing any more interviews.
Question for the ages: was this a good leak? Or a bad leak? Whatever happened to those sterling journalistic ethics we keep hearing about, to transparency and accountability? Whatever happened to respect for diversity and tolerance? Why is Mr. McGee's homosexuality being used as a weapon against him by the reality based community?
It is a puzzlement.
PJM link via Ed Driscoll
Posted by Cassandra at August 20, 2007 07:52 AM
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Comments
Who dares to expose the heart of darkness?
He who dares shall be sent down to the Pain of Ages.
Posted by: Ymarsakar at August 20, 2007 09:40 AM
I love it when the media acts like the corrupt government bureacrats that they are in truth. It dispels just a little bit of the illusion they have foisted upon us... for our own good of course.
Posted by: Ymarsakar at August 20, 2007 10:43 AM
While STB/TNR is an interesting story of how information is vetted, or not, and then put forward by major(and minor) media, and certainly one that should be and will be critiqued, I can not understand why TNR would sic a cease-and-desist order on the former employee. Own up, learn from it and move on...
Maybe it's just the kdN (knuckle-dragging Neanderthal) in me, but I think if I were in that spot I might lawyer-up and respond with an open invitation to make me.
Posted by: bthun at August 20, 2007 10:50 AM
Own up, learn from it and move on...
They can't do that, Bt. For them to do that, they would have to own their own souls.
Posted by: Ymarsakar at August 20, 2007 10:53 AM
Cassie -- bthun has made an apt suggestion. Mr. McGee is not sufficiently flush to do so himself. If you know of a good Washington first amendment lawyer willing to work pro bono, I can probably arrange to contact Throbert. He may however wish to concentrate on new stuff.
Posted by: levi from queens at August 20, 2007 10:58 AM
He may however wish to concentrate on new stuff.
That's the difference between those that seek to destroy and tear down what is Good and those that seek to do constructive things in life.
The former spends most of their time trying to divide and create suspicion amongst groups for some perceived self-advantage. The ACLU being the former.
Posted by: Ymarsakar at August 20, 2007 11:04 AM
I don't have a problem with leaks happening within the journalistic world. Matthew 26:52, and all that.
Posted by: Grim at August 20, 2007 01:04 PM
=8^} Kinda poetic ain't it Grim?
Posted by: bthun at August 20, 2007 01:13 PM
Wait! Wait! No one has come into this thread to hijack it and use moral equivalence to make this about the evil rethuglicans yet!
So, let me do the (dis)honors.
Ahem...
Oh yeah, this story's old hat. What about the fact that Karl Rove resigned and now has taken up a job as official Halliburton Baby Harp Seal Clubber and is now double-super evil because he's actually gay and therefore apostate. Don't you Christians really hate that?
Posted by: MikeD at August 20, 2007 01:22 PM
Dude, Karl who?
Posted by: Grim at August 20, 2007 01:23 PM
Marx
Posted by: Ymarsakar at August 20, 2007 01:34 PM
Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
?
Posted by: Ymarsakar at August 20, 2007 01:43 PM
Wait! Wait! No one has come into this thread to hijack it and use moral equivalence to make this about the evil rethuglicans yet!
They're stocking up on blood. Or else it's Coffin time.
Posted by: Ymarsakar at August 20, 2007 01:44 PM
Save me about two quarts.
Sorry. Thought you'd said it was *coffee* time...
Posted by: BillT at August 20, 2007 02:14 PM